HEBRON, Israeli occupation forces embarked today on bulldozing 50 dunums of Palestinian private-owned land outside the town of Dura, to the southwest of Hebron city in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Waleed Abu Sharar, one of the owners whose land is being bulldozed, told WAFA that the bulldozing of the land was aimed at providing more space for colonial Israeli settlement expansion in the area.

He added that Israeli settlers had previously attempted to take control of Palestinian private-owned land in the area.

According to Israeli rights group B’Tselem, Israel has used a complex legal and bureaucratic mechanism to take control of more Palestinian land in the West Bank.

The principal tool used to take control of land is to declare it “state land.” Other methods employed by Israel to take control of land include seizure for military needs, declaration of land as “abandoned assets,” and the expropriation of land for public needs.

Source: Palestinian News & Info Agency