Dozens of citizens were suffocated as a result of inhaling gas during the israeli occupation forces´ attack on Thursday, at a vigil organized by the national action factions in Tulkarem province, the governorate´s activities, the Committee for the Resistance of the Wall and Settlements, and the Popular Resistance Committees against the seizure of land in Shufa, Jabbara and Al-Ras, south of Tulkarem, and razing most of them, in preparation for the establishment of a settlement industrial zone on the land of these villages.
The occupying forces fired gas and sound bombs at the participants in the vigil, and arrested for a while the chairman of the Village Council Of Shufa Fawzat al-Daroubi, before being released, while arresting the young Yahya al-Daroubi.
Anti-settlement activist Mourad Al-Daroubi said: The work of bulldozers started in the land of Shufa, and a road was built around the mountain "Al-Wasani", then set off in the direction of Jabbara, and the third stage was in Izbat Shufa, pointing out that the goal of this phase is to build a road and identify the features of the industrial zone and impose a fait accompli.
The designated areas are about 720 dunums, he said.
Walid Assaf, head of the Anti-Wall and Settlement Authority, said that the occupation wants to devote the annexation map to the ground, so its bulldozers began linking the area of the wall to the settlements of "Avni Hefts" and "Anab", pointing out that the annexation plan is to divide the West Bank into dozens of cantons and separate each governorate from the other, and then divide each province into parts to facilitate the control of the areas and suffocate the population to push them to leave.
He explained that the Israeli strategic goal is a Jewish state without Palestinians, so today the industrial zone and annexationoperations on the ground were addressed, adding that what is required is to continue the popular resistance, in addition to the legal work currently under way against the establishment of the industrial settlement area, in addition to the readiness to provide the basic needs of farmers in the area, whether water line or power line.
Assaf added that what the settlers are doing today is to try to pre-empt the fait accompli before an Israeli court decision, noting that there is no confidence in the Israeli judiciary, but that no loophole will be left that could help protect the land.
In the same vein, Qabara Village Council Chairman Raed Mahmoud said that since the beginning of the settlers´ work of razing the land, the activities in the village have been initiated by the owners of the land and the residents, adding to "Jerusalem".com: the village has reached out to institutions that support the farms and prove its existence, as well as to the project of reclamation of agricultural roads and cultivation of uncultivated land, and the construction of agricultural water and drinking water in order to strengthen the presence in jabbara village.
Lawyer Sa´ad al-Safarini explained that about 800 dunums of the land of Shufa, Jabbara and Ras are threatened to establish a settlement industrial zone, noting that a large part of the threatened land has facilities, and the majority are reclaimed areas, and the owners are residents.
She added: The pretext of the occupation is that the land threatened is an unhealthy property, as the landowners reside in the country, and only a small part of the expatriates.
She pointed out that some areas threatened with confiscation had been subjected to the work of the Palestinian settlement project, and the land was registered under the names of its owners, such as the village of Al-Ras, noting that the current dredging work was carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupying forces without any decision by the occupation court on the order.
Dozens of people suffocated as a result of the occupation’s assault on a protest stand against the razing of lands in Tulkarm
