The Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority said on Wednesday that the Israeli army confiscated a large area of Palestinian land south of the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, amounting to about 12,715 dunums.

The authority said in a statement, “The Israeli occupation authorities decided to seize a total of 12,715 dunams of citizens’ lands in the village of Aqraba, southeast of Nablus.”

The authority stated that the confiscation decision came under the pretext that “they are state lands” with the aim of “converting citizens’ lands into the growing settlement project and prohibiting citizens from entering these lands under the pretext that they have become state lands.”

She added that the new decision is "part of a large plan aimed at controlling the eastern slopes of the West Bank, specifically those adjacent to the Jordan Valley and the edge of the Jordan Valley, by controlling vast areas in this region."

The authority continued: “Since the beginning of the year 2024, the Israeli occupation authorities have issued four announcements requiring the conversion of citizens’ lands into state lands that citizens are prohibited from accessing and thus cultivating, using and reclaiming.”

She pointed out that the area of land declared “state land,” including this declaration, amounted to a total of 24 thousand dunums since the beginning of this year, “while the total amount of land confiscated according to the various names from the beginning of the year until this moment reached a total of 39 thousand dunums.”

On Tuesday, the Commission indicated in a semi-annual report the establishment of 17 settlement outposts, at a time when the Israeli government granted legal status to 11 other outposts.