Minister Mu'ayyad Shaaban, head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, said that Israeli occupation forces and settlers carried out a total of 1,693 attacks during April, in a continuation of the ongoing terrorism perpetrated by the occupying state against the Palestinian people, their lands, and their property.

In the commission's monthly report, "Occupation Violations and Colonial Expansion Measures," Shaaban explained that the occupation army carried out 1,352 attacks, while settlers carried out 341. The total number of attacks was concentrated in the governorates of Hebron with 292 attacks, Ramallah with 269 attacks, and Nablus with 254 attacks.

The attacks ranged from armed attacks on Palestinian villages, to imposing facts on the ground and field executions, to vandalism and bulldozing of land, uprooting of trees, seizure of property, closures, and barriers that sever the ties of Palestinian geography.

The wave of colonial terrorism continues

Settler attacks were concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah, with 65 attacks, Hebron, Nablus, and Jerusalem.

Settlers carried out 231 acts of vandalism and theft of Palestinian property, affecting vast areas of land. The attacks also resulted in the uprooting of 1,168 olive trees: 530 in Ramallah, 300 in Nablus, and 298 in Salfit.

Attempt to establish 10 new colonial outposts

Since the beginning of April, settlers have attempted to establish 10 new outposts, predominantly agricultural and pastoral. These outposts were distributed among three attempts to establish outposts on lands in the Ramallah Governorate, two in the Salfit Governorate, and others in Jericho, Hebron, Tubas, and Nablus.

The escalation of attempts to establish colonial outposts in the final phase falls within the framework of fragmenting Palestinian geography and imposing a reality of control over Palestinian land. The colonists undertake the task of instigating changes on the ground, and then the official level undertakes to transform this change into a reality by legislating and enforcing it, transforming it into a colonial site with full access to services.

Seizing 54 dunums of citizens' land

Last April, the occupation authorities seized a total of 54 dunums of citizens' lands through four seizure orders for military purposes. These orders aimed to establish a buffer zone around the settlement of Efrat on Bethlehem Governorate lands, amounting to 45 dunums, and another buffer zone around the settlement of Nekodim, amounting to 3 dunums. The last order targeted the lands of the village of Silwad in the Ramallah Governorate, with the aim of paving a colonial road connecting the Tel al-Asur camp to the main street between the towns of Silwad and Deir Jarir.

152 facilities demolished and 46 others notified of demolition

During last April, the occupation authorities carried out 73 demolitions targeting 152 facilities, including 96 inhabited homes, 10 uninhabited ones, 34 agricultural facilities, and others. The demolitions were concentrated in the Tubas governorate with 59 facilities, the Hebron governorate with 39 facilities, the Jerusalem governorate with 17 facilities, and Jerusalem.

The occupation authorities distributed 46 demolition notices against Palestinian structures, continuing their crackdown on Palestinian construction and the natural growth of Palestinian villages and towns. These days, this is reflected in a significant increase in demolition operations. The notices were concentrated in the Hebron Governorate with 16, Ramallah with 14, and Jerusalem with 12.

The occupying state has adopted a dangerous approach to Palestinian construction, first by intensifying demolitions at an unprecedented rate, amid threats to intensify them in all areas, and second by forcing citizens to pay the costs of demolition, as happened recently in Masafer Yatta. He added that this measure aims to impose further layers of oppression on citizens.

A study of 27 master plans for the colonies included the announcement of the construction of two new colonial neighborhoods.

In April, the occupying state's planning authorities examined 21 master plans for West Bank settlements and six plans for settlements within the Jerusalem municipal boundaries. They approved 10 master plans and submitted 17 others. The April plans targeted a total of 3,030 dunams of private land.

The maps attached to the master plans indicated the occupation state's intention to expand the settlement of Nokdim, built on the lands of citizens in the villages of Arab al-Ta'amra, southeast of Herod's Castle in the Bethlehem Governorate, by approving a master plan (see side map) that aims to establish a new neighborhood belonging to the settlement for the purpose of building 290 new colonial units on an area of 239 dunams, through the master plan numbered יוש/12/411.

Not far from the first plan that leads to the construction of a neighborhood affiliated with the settlement of Nokdim, and after reviewing the maps attached to the master plan for the settlement of Ma'ale Amos, it became clear that the occupying state intends to establish a colonial neighborhood affiliated with Ma'ale Amos through the deposit of the plan bearing the number יוש/8/1/413, which aims to build 148 new colonial units on an area estimated at 42 dunams of land in the village of Kisan, south of the Bethlehem Governorate.

What is striking about the recent phase is the occupying state's tendency toward a policy of establishing colonial neighborhoods geographically distant from the mother colony, with the aim of controlling as much geographical area as possible in preparation for declaring them as separate colonies, as occurred in the occupation government's recent announcement recognizing the separation of 13 new colonial neighborhoods and considering them as full colonies.