AL-KHALIL, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), A horde of extremist Jewish settlers started on Tuesday morning to place mobile homes in the Khillet Ajouri-Sikka area of Dura City in al-Khalil province.
Local residents voiced their concern and anger over the presence of settlers in their area, describing their settlement activities as a new escalation targeting their lands in the western parts of Dura.
At the beginning of this month, settlers began constructing a settlement road in the town of Beit Awwa, west of al-Khalil, on swaths of land belonging to the al‑Awawdeh and as‑Suweiti families in the Tuwas and Sikka areas, near the military watchtower at the town’s entrance.
Settlers also seized hundreds of dunums of land west of Dura to build roads serving illegal outposts established in the area.
In February, the Israeli occupation army ordered a halt to construction on the house of Khaled al‑Ajouri and a livestock barn belonging to Muharib al‑Amareen, southwest of al-Khalil.
The Israeli army also ordered a halt to work on a water pipeline extending from Beit al‑Roush dam in Dura to farmers in the as‑Sahel area of the village.
This pipeline, four kilometers long, is supposed to serve dozens of farmers in its first phase, according to the Palestinian agriculture ministry.
In late January, Israeli forces demolished commercial and agricultural facilities, uprooted 100 olive trees, and bulldozed swaths of land and a concrete wall in the Wadi al‑Mughayir al‑Hara’yek neighborhood, adjacent to the illegal Hagai settlement near Road 60 east of al-Khalil. They also demolished a 400‑square‑meter commercial facility owned by Ahmad al‑Tamimi.
Israeli forces also uprooted about 100 olive trees in the Deir Musa area of Surif town, northwest of al-Khalil, bulldozed nearly 10 dunums of land, and demolished agricultural structures belonging to the Ghunaimat family.
