Israeli settlers today stormed archaeological sites in Beit Ummar town, north of Hebron, according to local sources.
Muhammad Awad, a local media activist, told WAFA that scores of settlers, under military protection, barged their way into the sites, adjacent to Karmei Zur colonial settlement and extending to the Gush Etzion colonial settlement bloc.
He voiced public concerns about the Israeli occupation authorities’ intentions to seize more land in the area to make room for settlement expansion.
Israel has been using archaeology as a key tool in reinforcing its bogus territorial claims to historic Palestine, including “Judea and Samaria”, the Jewish nationalist name used to refer to the occupied West Bank, and give them a veneer of historical and religious legitimacy.
There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency