Capitals - Saba:
Reports announced by Palestinian human rights organizations showed an increase in the violations of the Zionist enemy against the Palestinian people during 2024, through the doubling of the pace of settlement and the seizure of Palestinian lands in various ways, which reflects the occupation entity's continued implementation of policies aimed at changing the facts on the ground and pushing Palestinians to leave their lands and deport them from it.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, 2024 is one of the worst years for the Palestinian people since 1967 due to the escalation of settlements and the rise in settler crimes.
According to a report issued by the Commission, the measures of the Zionist occupation authorities and the settlers' encroachments "contributed to the displacement of five Palestinian Bedouin communities, consisting of 18 families and comprising 118 individuals, during the first half of 2024."
The same period witnessed the establishment of 17 new settlement outposts on the occupied Palestinian territories, bringing the total to 95 outposts controlling an area estimated at 412,000 dunums, in addition to 190 settlements in which about 740,000 settlers live.
The report documented an increase in the number of settlers in the West Bank, which increased by three percent over the past year, reaching about 726,427 settlers, distributed over 176 settlements and 186 outposts.
The Land Research Center of the Arab Studies Association confirms the escalation of the practices of the Zionist enemy during 2024, as it demolished 970 homes and facilities in the West Bank and Al-Quds while threatening to demolish 765 other facilities.
According to a report issued by the center, the Zionist enemy and its settlers uprooted and attacked 59,163 trees, 52,373 of which were completely executed.
The report also noted that the Zionist enemy seized 53,055 dunums of land in the West Bank and Quds during the past year, and closed 955 roads and entrances in various areas of the West Bank, including 76 closures using iron gates.
In the context of the displacement of Palestinians, the report stated that the enemy authorities deported 38 Palestinian communities, comprising 355 families (2,209 individuals), in addition to the escalation of grazing outposts by 25, threatening thousands of dunums with confiscation.
The report also addressed the plan to annex the West Bank or large parts of it, through preliminary annexations of areas such as the south and east of Al-Khalil, the Jordan Valley, and the vicinity of settlement communities such as Ariel-Salfit governorate, Ma'ale Adumim - east of Jerusalem governorate, and Kafr Etzion located between the Bethlehem and Al-Khalil governorates, as well as the lands behind the annexation wall.
The Zionist Minister of Finance Smotrich also issued the decision to expropriate land south of Al-Khalil, which is a practical embodiment of the annexation policy. Then, about seven settlement outposts were established on the lands classified "B," five of which are on the land of the Bethlehem wilderness, which is within the lands of the nature reserve according to the Oslo Accords and its annexes.
In addition, in its annual report for 2024, Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of the Rights of Bedouins and Targeted Villages documented 2977 attacks carried out by the Zionist enemy army and settlers against Bedouin communities in the West Bank.
The organization pointed out that the attacks varied between the demolition of homes and agricultural facilities, the destruction of crops, the theft of livestock, and the destruction of schools and public facilities, in addition to policies of forced and silent displacement aimed at undermining the lives of Palestinian Bedouins and forcing them to leave their lands.
The report also documented the displacement of 67 Bedouin communities, including 340 families estimated at 2,345 people, through mass displacements aimed at creating a population vacuum in favor of new settlement projects.
The organization added that the policies of the Zionist enemy follow a systematic approach that begins with the demolition of homes and barracks, the destruction of basic infrastructure, the destruction of schools, and the deprivation of children from education, which puts residents in front of difficult choices between leaving or staying amid harsh living conditions.
Al-Baydar pointed out that these attacks come within the framework of a policy of ethnic cleansing aimed at emptying Palestinian lands of their original inhabitants, as well as attempts to obliterate the cultural and historical identity of Palestinian Bedouin communities by targeting educational and social institutions.
These attacks also come within a broader context of the attacks carried out by settlers in the West Bank, which have escalated in recent years, especially in parallel with the ongoing war of extermination since the seventh of October 2023, as Palestinian villages and towns, including Bedouin communities, have witnessed organized attacks led by settlers under the protection of the enemy army, targeting agricultural lands, homes, and schools.
These attacks are also part of the Zionist enemy's policy of expanding outposts and imposing a new reality on the ground, amid international complicity and UN silence towards these ongoing crimes.
Al-Baidar called for urgent and effective international action to pressure the Zionist enemy to stop these attacks and ensure the protection of Bedouin communities by international humanitarian law, stressing the need to hold the occupation entity accountable for its ongoing crimes against the Palestinians.
At the same time, the enemy army expanded its operations and settlers escalated their attacks in the West Bank, including Quds, resulting in 835 martyrs and about six thousand and 700 wounded, according to official Palestinian data.
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