Israel sets sights on taking over more Palestinian land in West Bank

Israel is reportedly looking to appropriate even more Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.

Residents of Az-Zawiya, a village near Salfit city, were informed of Israel's plans for another land grab on Thursday, a municipal source said.

Local mayor Mohammad Raddad said he was given a military order saying Israel had decided to seize 96 dunums (24 acres), the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The land in question has already been cut off from Az-Zawiya by an Israeli barrier that splits the West Bank from Israel and Jerusalem, known to many as the "apartheid wall".

Israeli authorities and settlers frequently take over Palestinian land.

In a 2019 report on seizure orders issued between 1969 and 2014, Israeli NGO Kerem Navot said Israel appropriated over 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of Palestinian land citing security needs.

However, almost 47 percent of the land requisitioned under rules permitting seizure for "urgent military needs" was being used for settlement housing or access roads by the time of the report.

Some were initially used to house military infrastructure that was later passed on to settlers, the report said.

Settlements breach international law and are considered a key barrier to a workable two-state solution as they carve up Palestinian land.

There are more than 700,000 settlers residing illegally in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.