JENIN (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Israeli occupation forces have notified of the seizure of 300 dunums of land from the village of Arqa, west of Jenin in the northern West Bank, adjacent to the separation wall.
The head of the village council in Arqa stated that the occupation forces delivered notices to citizens regarding the seizure of 300 dunums of their agricultural land adjacent to the wall, depriving farmers of their only source of livelihood.
Since the establishment of the separation wall on the western side of Jenin governorate in 2002-2003, the occupation authorities have linked the settlements of (Shaked, Hananit, Rehan, Tal Menashe) into one settlement bloc called “Rehan Bloc,” connecting it via main roads to the settlements of “Miyami” and “Katzir,” located in the territories occupied in 1948, which quickly became a large settlement conglomerate.
Last year, 1,100 dunums of land from the western region in Ya’bad, adjacent to the Harimish settlement, were confiscated to expand it and build new settlement units.
Since 2022, the restrictions imposed by the occupation forces on the entire Jenin governorate have intensified, with a clear focus on settlement expansion in the villages of the governorate. Israel has also attempted to return to some settlements that were evacuated, such as the Homesh settlement near the town of Silat al-Dhahr south of Jenin, which was evacuated in 2005.
With the onset of the Israeli genocide against the Gaza Strip, land seizures and confiscations in the West Bank have significantly increased. According to estimates by the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Authority, the occupation authorities confiscated 27,000 dunums of land in the West Bank during the past year 2024, marking the largest land theft operation of Palestinian land in three decades.
