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Palestinians have launched protests in the West Bank after Israeli bulldozers began clearing land in what villagers fear is an attempt to confiscate it for future Jewish settlements.
Scuffles intensified this week as Israeli voters voted in an election, with Palestinians saying settlers had been emboldened by U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East plan and Israeli election rhetoric about annexing settlements.
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Palestinian protesters in the West Bank near the settlement of Beka'ot
(Photo: Shaul Golan)
Villagers from the nearby village of Qusra, near the Palestinian city of Nablus, challenged IDF troops guarding the bulldozers as they worked in a field close to Migdalim settlement.
In another nearby village, Beita, residents protested over several days, planting a Palestinian flag and erecting a tent on the hilltop of al-Arma to defend it against settlers from the Itamar settlement, also near the city of Nablus. Some demonstrators hurled rocks at soldiers.
"I came here because this is my land, and I want to die on my land but they are not letting me come near it," said Joudat Odeh, from Qusra.
"They are happy at Netanyahu's victory," said Odeh, 70. "They are coming to control this land and we are helpless."
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Prime Minister Netanyahu at a Likud rally on Monday following the election's exit polls results
(Photo: AFP)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing Likud Party leads the vote count after Monday's election, but with 99% of votes counted on Wednesday he was still 3 seats short of securing the 61-MK majority needed to form a government.
Victory would pave the way for Netanyahu to make good on his campaign pledge to annex settlements in the West Bank under Trump's peace plan.
Palestinians have rejected the proposal, saying it would kill the possibility of establishing a viable state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
More than 400,000 Israeli settlers now live among about 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank, with a further 200,000 settlers in East Jerusalem. Palestinians and much of the world view the settlements as illegal under international law, a position Israel and the United States dispute.
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Israeli machinery, guarded by IDF forces, bulldozes lands near the Palestinian village of Qusra
(Photo: Reuters)
An Israeli military statement said that on March 1 Israelis were carrying out "agricultural work" near Migdalim when around 30 Palestinians "came to the area, hurled rocks and came into a physical confrontation with the Israelis. Military forces came to the area and dispersed the crowd."
Soon afterward, the statement said, 120 Palestinians gathered nearby in what the IDF termed a "riot." It said its troops were confronted with burning tires and "large amounts of rocks" and "responded with riot dispersal means."
Qusra protesters said Israel had stopped Palestinians using or farming the lands in question since the 1990s, and now they feared settlers would seize them for their own use.
"I am afraid that in a few days Netanyahu may come to lay the cornerstone of a new settlement," said Mohammad Shokri, 80, from Qusra.
"He gave them a promise he would increase settlement. They want to take over all the mountains and to leave nothing for the Arabs".