Secretary General of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Executive Committee, Dr. Saeb Erekat, has said that Israel has seized 95 per cent of the Jordan Valley which is inhabited by 12,700 Israeli settlers while only 55,000 Palestinians live on the remaining five per cent.

Erekat added in a statement issued by the Negotiations Affairs Department on Tuesday that in 2019 Israel constructed four new settlement outposts and added 110 settlement units to existing settlements in the Jordan Valley.

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According to the PLO official, Israel has stolen 94 per cent of the Jordan Valley water in addition to 100,000 dunums which are seized and declared closed military areas before being transferred to the settlers.

He explained that the intensification of settlement construction in the occupied Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea area is a prelude to implementing the annexation of the area under the so-called deal of the century.