The Palestine Liberation Organization said on Saturday that about 40% of the total area of the West Bank is currently under the direct control of Israeli settlements .
This came in a report issued by the organization’s “National Office for Land Defense and Settlement Resistance” on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Interim Peace Agreement between the Palestinians and Israel.
The report estimated that the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem exceeded 750,000, which constitutes seven times the number that was the case in 1993 when the Oslo Accords were signed.
According to the report, since the signing of the Oslo Accords, Israel has escalated settlement activities, including opening bypass roads and issuing military orders ordering the seizure of Palestinian lands.
The report said that Israel’s settlement activities are taking place “contrary to what was included in the Oslo Accords, which stipulated that neither party may initiate or take any step that would change the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip until awaiting the results of the final status negotiations.”
He added that Israel “seemed to be in a race against time to impose more new facts on the ground, and its successive governments used the Oslo Accords as a political cover for their settlement activities.”
According to the report, the number of settlements in the Palestinian territories by the end of this year reached 158 settlements, inhabited by about 700 to 750 thousand settlers, in addition to 15 to 20 thousand settlers living in more than 200 settlement outposts.
The report indicated that the current Israeli government aims to raise the number of settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, to about one million settlers during the next two years.
He warned that Israel is preparing “a settlement plan that includes dozens of settlement projects, including new construction, including new settlement cities, and the legalization of about 155 settlement outposts and pastoral farms.”
Jerusalem : The number of Jews in the world is 15.7 million, and 46 percent of them live in Israel
Data from the Jewish Agency revealed on Friday that the percentage of Jews in Israel amounted to about 46 percent of their total number in the world.
The agency (a non-governmental entity supported by Israel) said in a report on the occasion of the “Hebrew New Year”: “The number of Jews in the world has reached about 15.7 million, meaning an increase of about 100,000 compared to last year.”
She added: “Out of the total Jewish population, the number of Jews in Israel is about 7.2 million, while about 8.5 million Jews live outside Israel, including about 6.3 million in the United States, and about 2.2 million in the rest of the countries.”
The report added: “The percentage of Jews in Israel out of the total number of Jews in the world is about 46 percent, an increase of half a percent compared to the revised figures in the previous year.”
He pointed out that “these estimates include all those who identify themselves as Jews by religion, and do not hold any other religious identity, and the numbers do not include those who identify themselves as partially Jewish.”
Israeli law allows every Jew or anyone who considers himself of Jewish origins to immigrate to Israel within the so-called “Law of Return.”
In this regard, the agency said: “The number of those who meet the requirements of the Law of Return as Jews in the world, including Jews and members of their extended families, is 25.5 million people, of whom 7.7 million already live in Israel, and approximately 18 million outside the State of Israel.”
She said: “More than 500,000 citizens who are entitled to the Law of Return, and who are not registered as Jews in the population registry, still live in Israel.”
The agency indicated that it “will continue to work with its partners in the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Federations of North America, and Jewish institutions, for the common future of the entire Jewish people.”
From Friday evening until Sunday evening, Israel celebrates Rosh Hashanah, the Hebrew New Year.
The Israeli army targets a Hamas site in Gaza and wounds 12 Palestinians in protests near the separation fence
Gaza : On Friday evening, Israeli warplanes bombed an observation point belonging to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), east of the Gaza Strip, without announcing any casualties.
The Israeli army said, “An IDF aircraft raided a military point belonging to the Hamas organization during the violent riots that occurred near the security fence with the Gaza Strip.”
The statement claimed that “explosive devices were activated and hand grenades were thrown at Israeli army forces, without causing any casualties.”
This is the first time that the Israeli army has announced its bombing of Hamas sites since last May.
Earlier Friday, 12 Palestinians were injured after the Israeli army dispersed demonstrations near the separation fence, east of the Gaza Strip.
The injuries varied from injuries caused by live and rubber-coated bullets, and cases of suffocation due to the firing of tear gas canisters. Among the injured was Palestinian photojournalist Ashraf Abu Amra.
On Friday, hundreds of Palestinians flocked to the separation fence to participate in marches called for by young men on social media, in support of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the prisoners.
The army deployed its heavily armed forces, vehicles, and sniper units along the separation fence to disperse the demonstrations, while the demonstrators fired firecrackers, sound bombs, and stones near the fence, and lit used car tires.
Hamas : For its part, Hamas described the Israeli bombing on Friday and the targeting of demonstrators near the separation fence as “criminal behavior.”
The movement’s spokesman, Hazem Qassem, said that Israel “continues to commit its crimes against our people everywhere, and today it targeted peaceful demonstrators and journalists in a barbaric manner, as well as bombing them with aircraft.”
He added, "This is part of the Nazi criminal behavior against our Palestinian people, and this crime will not deter our people from continuing their legitimate struggle to regain their rights."
He pointed out that “our people have the right to practice all methods of struggle against the occupation and its aggression against the holy sites, Al-Aqsa, and against the prisoners, and to escalate its aggression against our people in the West Bank and the continuation of the siege of Gaza.”