RAMALLAH, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian Authority Wall and Colonization Resistance Commission official Ghassan Daghlas on Sunday said that Israeli authorities issued villages land confiscation orders to Palestinians for settlement expansion projects.
Daghlas said that the orders include three villages - two adjacent villages near Nablus and a third village near Ramallah city, all of which surround illegal Israeli settlement of Shilo.
He pointed out that Israeli authorities have banned Palestinians from accessing the disputed lands, under the pretext that one land is state-owned and the other is closed military zones.
He accused Israeli authorities of using such pretext to facilitate utilizing the lands by settlers, and considered them as "gifts by the Israeli prime minister to settlers ahead of parliament elections."
Netanyahu had previously promised to impose Israeli sovereignty over Israeli settlements in the West Bank, as part of his electoral campaign.
According to latest Palestinian data, around 400,000 Israeli settlers live in 135 settlements and 100 illegal outposts in the West Bank, where the Palestinian population has reached 2.6 million.
Under the interim Oslo agreement signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Israeli government in 1993, the West Bank was divided into three areas, the first being areas (A) under Palestinian control, (B) under Palestinian control and Israeli security control and areas (C) that are underfull Israeli control and take up over 60 percent of its 5,655 square km area.
The Palestinian Authority has recently taken a decision to stop abiding by Oslo accord and encourage Palestinians to use areas under Israeli control for agriculture and home construction.
Israeli settlement activity is deemed illegal by most world powers and under the international law, and considered one of the issues that hindered the peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
