Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich stormed the town of Ni’lin in the central occupied West Bank, a day after Tel Aviv announced decisions expanding annexation of the territory.
“Today, I carried out a tour (raid) of the waste-burning site in the town of Ni’lin, accompanied by the head of the Judea and Samaria Subcommittee (the biblical name for the West Bank),” he said.
The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) member boasted of his support for the enforcement the annexation policy, which he posted on X platform.
“During the tour, we closely monitored ongoing enforcement activities at the site, as part of broader efforts to restore control over the area and stop the continued impact on the quality of life of Israeli citizens.
“This tour came a day after the decision of the security cabinet, which I led together with Defense Minister Israel Katz, granting security forces strong enforcement powers against environmental terrorism, even within Areas A and B.”
Boasting further about the incursion, Smotrich said: Israel “takes responsibility and acts wherever its citizens are harmed.”
Earlier on Monday, the Israeli army forced several Palestinian families south of the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank to evacuate their homes in preparation for the return of its forces to a military camp it had evacuated in 2005.
Jamal Rashid, a Palestinian resident affected by the evacuation order, said the Israeli army gave several families, numbering more than 50 people, until Tuesday morning to leave their homes and vacate the Arraba camp south of Jenin.
He told Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency that the families relied on livestock herding and that after the Israeli army evacuated the camp in 2005, they moved into old buildings inside the camp that had been constructed before Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967.
“But the army arrived on Saturday and informed residents that they must evacuate in preparation for its return to the camp,” Rashid said.
He added that the families have begun moving their belongings and livestock to other areas of the town of Arraba amid the absence of any alternative housing options.
The army had evacuated the camp in 2005 as part of what was known at the time as the “disengagement plan,” an Israeli measure under which settlements and military sites were evacuated in the northern West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet ordered the repealing of a law barring the sale of Palestinian land to Jews in the West Bank, the unsealing of land ownership records, and transferring building permit authority in a Hebron settlement bloc from the Palestinian municipality to Israel’s civil administration.
The measures also expand Israeli oversight and enforcement into areas classified as Area A and Area B, citing alleged violations related to unlicensed construction, water issues and damage to archaeological and environmental sites.
The expansion would allow demolitions and seizures of Palestinian property even in areas administered civilly and security-wise by the Palestinian Authority.
According to Israel’s Yedioth Ahronoth daily, the measures are expected to bring sweeping changes to land registration and purchasing mechanisms in the West Bank.
Opening land records would publicly disclose owners’ names and enable Israeli buyers to contact them directly, easing land purchases and settlement expansion across the occupied territory, the outlet added.(AA/NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Mark Longyen
