By Saber Ghanem Ibrahim Eid
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL (AA) – Illegal Israeli settlers forced 15 Palestinian families to dismantle their homes and leave the northern Jordan Valley in the northeastern West Bank, a local official said Tuesday.
Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the al-Malih village council, told the official news agency Wafa that about 15 families started dismantling their homes due to escalating illegal settler attacks against them.
Seven other families were forced to leave the nearby Maita community days earlier for similar settler attacks and threats, Wafa said.
In a separate incident, illegal settlers assaulted young men from the town of al-Nabi Samwil, northwest of East Jerusalem, injuring one man who was taken to a hospital with bruises, the same source said.
Israel has intensified military operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since launching its war in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023. The operations have included killings, arrests, displacement and settlement expansion, according to Palestinian officials, who say the measures aim to impose new realities on the ground.
At least 1,114 Palestinians have been killed, about 11,500 wounded and around 22,000 arrested in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to official Palestinian data.
On Sunday, the Israeli government approved a proposal to register large areas in the West Bank as “state property,” for the first time since Tel Aviv occupied the territory in 1967.
Palestinians warn that Israel’s actions pave the way for a formal annexation of the occupied West Bank, which they say would end prospects for a Palestinian state envisioned in United Nations resolutions.
*Writing by Lina Altawell