The occupation authorities began today, Tuesday, new bulldozing operations to expand the "Shvut Rachel" settlement, which is built on the lands of Jalud village, south of Nablus.
Ghassan Douglas, the official of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, told Wafa news agency that the new bulldozing operations are being carried out in basin No. (13) the “Bats” site, to the west of Galloud High School, hundreds of meters away from it.
He added that the sweeping operations came after the Israeli War Minister, Naftali Bennett, announced the expansion of the aforementioned settlement five times, and to establish contact between the settlements of "Shilo" and "Shvut Rachel" and the rest of the settlement outposts located in the east of them, all the way to "Alon" Street.
He stated that the village of Jalud is surrounded by a number of settlements from the southern, eastern and western sides, and most of its agricultural lands are used for the "Shivot Rachel", "Shilo" and "Adi Ad" settlements, and the "Kodesh", "Keda" and "Yahya" foci.
Douglas stressed that all of these settlements constitute a real threat to the Arab nature of the region and threaten the stability and existence of the population. The occupation government seized more than 10 thousand dunums of village lands in favor of settlement, and about 85% were declared. From the village lands (i.e. more than 6000 dunums) military areas, the village is turned into an isolated area only to protect the settlers.
He pointed out that the construction and expansion projects are escalating in the settlements, which means the seizure of more lands. According to the latest statistics, the number of settlement units added to the settlements in Jalud´s lands has quadrupled since 2000
