The Israeli authorities confiscated 51,000 dunams and isolated five villages in the Jordan Valley area in the northern occupied West Bank, an official in charge of Jordan Valley’s Israeli settlements file at the Palestinian Authority (PA) reported.

Mutaz Bisharat told the Voice of Palestine radio station that the Israeli authorities confiscated 51,000 dunams, isolated 5 villages and seized control over water springs, agricultural machinery, and solar cells.

5/ Some 57% of the land in the Jordan Valley has been declared a closed military zone, also known as “firing zones”, where Israeli army forces routinely train using live ammunition and explosive devices. https://t.co/vGrTooz73l — John Obbo (@jfjabbo) April 14, 2019

Bisharat added that the Israeli policy aims at isolating villages of the Tubas district, pointing out that these areas were marked as closed military areas banning their owners from entering without an Israeli-issued permit.

He stressed that Israel aims to expel Palestinians from the area under its plan to seize the Jordan Valley area.

The Jordan Valley forms a third of the occupied West Bank, with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C — under full Israeli military control.

International rights organizations consider the continuation of the Israeli campaign which targets Palestinians in the Jordan Valley, whether through confiscations, demolitions or evictions under the pretext of holding military exercises, as a violation of international humanitarian law.

Israel to confiscate land in Jordan Valley: PA officialhttps://t.co/FEZKWr5DDS pic.twitter.com/roPUdGSYRg — Yeni Şafak English (@yenisafakEN) April 16, 2019

Since the beginning of the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, Israel has confiscated hundreds of thousands of dunums by declaring it state land.

Israeli authorities in 1968 banned Palestinians from registering their lands and subsequently took advantage of previously low rates of land registration to confiscate areas currently or previously in use by locals but not registered as such.

The confiscated lands are then used to construct Jewish-only settlements on the land, while further confiscation often uses the pretext of the settlements’ security.

(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)