Illegal Zionist settlers set up new outpost in Jordan Valley

In a new violation in occupied Palestine, Zionist settlers set up a new outpost in the northern Jordan Valley, a prelude usually to building a new illegal settlement.

According to Press TV, Motaz Bisharat, an official in the Tubas Governorate, said on Tuesday that a group of illegal settlers set up an animal barn and brought cows. On Monday, they set up three more shacks turning the spot into a settlement outpost.

Zionists carried out attacks on the shepherds two days earlier, injuring one in the head after hitting him with sticks, Bisharat explained.

According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, the total area of the lands in the al-Baqai’a Plain area that the outpost is expected to seize is estimated at nearly 1,800 dunums.

The Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area contain the largest land reserves in the West Bank. The area covers 1.6 million dunams of land, which constitute 28.8 percent of the West Bank. Sixty-five thousand Palestinians live in 29 communities, and an estimated additional 15,000 Palestinians reside in dozens of small Beduin communities.

The ongoing illegal settlers’ action demonstrates a clear Israeli intention, which is a de facto annexation of the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea area to the Israeli regime.

Israel, which keeps full military and civilian control over the Jordan Valley and Area C of the West Bank, seeks to uproot all Palestinians living there while it builds new illegal settlements for its settlers.

SS