Palestinian government deplores Israeli "confiscation" of thousands of acres in West Bank

The Palestinian government deplored Israel's confiscation of thousands of acres of Palestinians' lands near northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday.

Palestinian government spokesperson Yousef Al-Mahmoud, said in an emailed press statement that this Israeli step was taken just before the Paris peace conference, expected on Sunday.

Al-Mahmoud said the step aims to counter international efforts at reviving the peace process to end the Israeli occupation and establish a sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

The spokesperson also said that the Israeli decision defies resolution 2334 of the United Nations Security Council, which was adopted last month.

Al-Mahmoud stressed that Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories are "a flagrant violation of international law and a new obstacle ahead of the two-state solution and the possibility to achieve just peace."

On Thursday, a Palestinian government official in charge of documenting Israeli settlements activity in the north of the West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, told Xinhua that Israeli forces notified families in the Assira Ashamaliyya village, near the city of Nablus, of their takeover of 3,989 acres of land in the village.

Dahlias said Israel claimed that the land confiscations were due to security reasons, describing it as the most common pretext Israel uses when seizing Palestinian lands.

No Israeli sources were immediately available to comment on the statement.

Peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians have remained stalled since April 2014, when U.S.-sponsored negotiations broke down after nine months of futile efforts.

source: Xinhua