The Israeli regime with the assistance of a “radical” settler group has been grabbing Palestinian land under the pretext of providing protection for historic archaeological sites, a British minister says.

"We are aware of the link between the Elad (settler) group and the Israel Antiquities Authority. We are concerned that this link has led to Israel Antiquities Authority's support of radical settler activities in and around the Old City under the guise of tourism and protection of Jewish history,” UK Foreign Office Minister Baroness Anelay said.

The settler group is infamous for colonizing Palestinian land by driving Palestinian residents out of their dwellings.

"Such actions not only aggravate mounting pressures in East Jerusalem but serve to increase tension around the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif and further complicate future attempts to negotiate a political resolution on the city," the British minister added.

According to reports, the extremist settler group has previously paid the Israeli Antiquities Authority to dig deep trenches near Palestinian homes and mosques in East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

Israel has tried to change the demographic makeup of al-Quds over the past decades by constructing illegal settlements, destroying historical sites and expelling the local Palestinian population.

The Tel Aviv regime, which has demolished over 560 Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank so far this year, is already facing widespread global condemnation over its settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian lands.

The presence and continued expansion of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine has created a major obstacle in the way of efforts to establish peace in the Middle East.

More than half a million Israelis live in more than 120 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, including East al-Quds, in 1967.

The Israeli settlements are regarded as illegal by the United Nations and most countries because the territories were captured by Israel in a war in 1967 and are thus subject to the Geneva Conventions, which forbid construction on occupied lands.

IA/MHB/AS