Israeli Jewish settlers from the illegal settlements of Salit and Miskiot in the Jordan Valley occupied wide swathes of Palestinian lands, Arab48.com reported yesterday.

Mutaz Bsharat, responsible for assessing settler activity in the West Bank city of Tubas, said that the settlers from Salit and Miskiot “seized more than 300 dunams [about 75 acres] from Himat Khilla area during the past two days,” noting that they laid down foundations for barracks and settlement units in addition to installing water pipes.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that his government will join a project carried out by El-Ad to search for Jewish remains in the rubble extracted from under the Al-Aqsa Mosque 17 years ago.

Netanyahu’s announcement was made during a speech he delivered at the inauguration ceremony of the Antiquities Village in Jerusalem, near the Museum of Israel.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu attacked UNESCO’s decision last week which denied Jewish links to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its Western Wall.

He claimed that Israel is the sole place where Mosques and Churches are not being demolished by extremists, ignoring the systematic destruction of hundreds of mosques, the partition of the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron and closing it and other mosques from time to time.