Amnesty warns Israel escalating West Bank annexation with new land seizures

Israel is intensifying its annexation of the occupied West Bank through land confiscation orders extending into territory administered by the Palestinian Authority, Amnesty International said.

The Israeli military issued at least 15 orders in July covering approximately 200 dunams (20 hectares) in Areas A and C of the Jenin governorate, the London-based rights group said in a statement on Thursday.

The seizures are reportedly intended to facilitate a road connecting the planned Emek Dotan and Noa settlements, which are among 34 new settlements approved by the Israeli government earlier this year, it added.

Area A has formally been under the Palestinian Authority's civil and security administration since the Oslo Accords.

Citing Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now, Amnesty said this was the first time since the accords that military seizure orders had openly targeted Area A for civilian projects benefiting settlers rather than purported security purposes.

The confiscated land is largely privately owned by Palestinians from several villages in Jenin, according to the statement.

The Jenin governor's office told Amnesty that implementation had begun and could cut off hundreds of families from agricultural land and olive groves ahead of the harvest season.

It said the planned road and other settlement projects could sever Jenin from the neighboring governorates of Tulkarem, Tubas, and Nablus, further fragmenting Palestinian communities and disrupting economic and social ties.

Amnesty urged countries with close relations with Israel to press its government to withdraw the orders and called on Israeli authorities to halt settlement expansion.

Under international law, Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal. Israel disputes this characterization.