Israel Approves Planing of New Settler Neighborhood in Hebron

Hebron, MINA – The new Israeli Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett, approved today the planning of a new settler neighborhood in the wholesale market area in the city of Hebron, in the southern occupied West Bank, according to Israeli media outlets.

The defense minister’s office said in a statement that Bennett had ordered the relevant offices within the Israel defense forces to inform the Hebron municipality that planning was starting for the new neighborhood near the city’s old market, said Israeli media outlets.

According to WAFA, Mayor of Hebron, Taysir Abu Sneineh, warned of the repercussions of this decision, which he stressed will ignite the entire region, and will lead the situation to an irreversible explosion, stressing that the municipality of Hebron, and under the guidance of the Palestinian leadership, will put all its efforts to thwart this plan and protect the Palestinian land and preserve the property of residents and their presence there.

He stressed that the world must break its silence and oblige the [Israeli] occupation government to comply with the United Nations resolutions and international law which criminalizes any changes in occupied territory.

Israeli occupation forces, accompanied by dozens of settlers, threatened earlier today Palestinian owners of shops near Hebron’s Ibrahimi Mosque, known to Jews as ‘Tomb of the Patriarchs’, to close their shops and evict the area or else they will be evicted by force of arms. (T/R04/P2)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)