Israel starts constructing new settlement road to encircle occupied East Jerusalem
Israel has begun constructing a six-kilometre settlement bypass road north of occupied East Jerusalem, seizing land from nearby towns, Palestinian officials say.
Israeli authorities began constructing a new settlement road north of occupied East Jerusalem, a Jerusalem governorate official said.
According to the governorate, the road stretches about six kilometres, running from the town of Mikhmas east of occupied Jerusalem to the village of Qalandiya to the west, Al Jazeera reported on Thursday.
Israeli authorities confiscated 280 dunams of land from four Palestinian towns to build the road, the governorate said. A dunam is a land measurement commonly used in the region, equal to about 1,000 square metres.
Officials said the project is part of a broader plan to develop a network of settlement bypass roads closed off to Palestinians which will cut off their access to much of the central West Bank.
Palestinian movement in the occupied West Bank has already been systematically obstructed by Israeli checkpoints, closures and restricted roads, creating what the UN and rights groups describe as “apartheid-like” systems of segregation.
Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank have intensified since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, including killings, home demolitions, displacement of Palestinians and illegal settlement expansion.
Palestinians say the escalation is intended to pave the way for Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, which they argue would effectively end prospects for a two-state solution envisioned in UN resolutions.
More than 1,110 Palestinians have been killed, about 11,500 wounded and over 21,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank during this period, according to official Palestinian figures.
About 750,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements across the occupied West Bank, including around 250,000 in the occupied East Jerusalem, figures Palestinian officials cite as evidence of daily settler violence aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians.
For decades, the Palestinian Authority has urged the international community to pressure Israel to end settlement expansion, which the United Nations deems illegal, warning that any formal annexation of the West Bank would end prospects for a two-state solution envisioned in UN resolutions.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.