Israeli settlers displace 15 Palestinian families in West Bank: Official

Israeli settlers forced the families to dismantle homes in the Jordan Valley, a village leader tells Wafa news agency.

Israeli settlers have forced 15 Palestinian families to tear down their homes and depart from the northern Jordan Valley in the northeastern occupied West Bank, according to a local official.

Mahdi Daraghmeh, head of the al-Malih Village Council, told the Wafa news agency on Tuesday that the families had begun dismantling their homes amid intensifying assaults by settlers.

According to Wafa, seven additional families from the nearby Maita community were forced to leave several days earlier following similar settler attacks and threats.

In a separate incident, settlers assaulted men from Nabi Samwil village, northwest of occupied East Jerusalem, injuring one, who was taken to a hospital with bruises, Wafa reported.

This comes as Israeli forces have stepped up attacks on several areas across the occupied occupied West Bank, with raids and demolitions reported in Nablus, Al Khader and Salfit on Tuesday.

The Israeli government has advanced a series of measures to cement its control over the occupied territory. These include making it easier for settlers to buy Palestinian land, and opening up the registration of Palestinian land as Israeli state land.

‘Entrenching Israeli control’

This week the Israeli government also approved a plan to designate large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property”, shifting the burden of proof to Palestinians to establish ownership of their land.

Palestinians warn that Israel’s actions pave the way for a formal annexation of the territory, which they say would end prospects for a Palestinian state envisioned in multiple United Nations resolutions.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the foreign ministers of Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt said the step aims at imposing a new legal and administrative reality to consolidate control over the occupied land.

The Israeli decision is “a grave escalation aimed at accelerating illegal settlement activity, land confiscation, entrenching Israeli control, and applying unlawful Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied Palestinian Territory and undermining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people”, the statement added.

Israel has intensified military operations in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since launching its genocidal war on Gaza in October 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 some 22,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, according to official Palestinian data.