OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (Palestine Foundation Information Center) The Israeli occupation authority issued new demolition orders on Sunday afternoon for dozens of homes and structures in the town of Anata, northeast of Occupied Jerusalem.
According to local sources, Israeli forces began distributing many demolition orders targeting residential, agricultural, and commercial facilities across the town under the pretext of being built without Israeli permits.
Mohammad Al-Kiswani, Deputy Head of Anata Municipality (Jerusalem Governorate), stated in a press release that the distribution of these notices was still ongoing and that it was currently impossible to determine their exact number.
He further added that the Israeli forces had imposed a strict lockdown, setting up military checkpoints and preventing residents from moving between the neighborhoods.
Al-Kiswani warned of a wide-scale demolition campaign that could affect numerous homes and commercial establishments.
Israel prohibits construction and land development in areas classified as “Area C” without Israeli permits, which Palestinians say are nearly impossible to obtain.
Under the 1995 Oslo II Interim Agreement, “Area C” was designated as being under full Israeli civil and security control. Palestinians and human rights groups have long accused Israel of using permit restrictions as a tool to displace Palestinian communities and expand settlement activity.
Along the same line, the Israeli occupation authorities seized dozens of dunums of Palestinian land in Bethlehem and al-Khalil, specifically in the areas of Al-Khader, Artas, Bethlehem, and Beit Ummar.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the Israeli authorities issued military order No. (T/3/25), placing 57.79 dunums under control for the declared purpose of establishing a “buffer zone” around the illegal settlement of Efrat, which is built on Palestinian-owned land in the Bethlehem area.
The commission noted that Israel has, through a series of military orders, created 14 such buffer zones around various settlements. These zones effectively bar Palestinian access to large swathes of their own land under the pretext of security, paving the way for permanent Israeli control and annexation.
Furthermore, the so-called Israeli “Land Authority” had issued two large construction tenders in February for the building of 974 new settlement units to form a new neighborhood within Efrat settlement — a plan that the commission had previously exposed.
Maps accompanying today’s military order reveal that the intended buffer zone will also encompass the site of this new neighborhood, as well as two outposts to the north of Efrat that have been retroactively legalized and annexed as neighborhoods: Givat Hadagan and Givat Hatamar.
The move is seen as another step in Israel’s ongoing efforts to expand settlements in the occupied West Bank, entrench its control over strategic areas, and undermine the territorial contiguity of any future Palestinian state.
