Israel has announced plans to build a new fence near the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron) as part of ongoing crackdown on Palestinians.
Israel's minister for military affairs Moshe Ya'alon told members of the Israeli parliament (Knesset) that the government would soon build a fortified fence near al-Khalil.
The minister defended the decision to construct the barrier, alleging that it would halt Palestinian attacks against the Israeli forces.
Al-Khalil has turned into a flashpoint of Palestinian resistance against Israel's aggression.
Israel began building several fences across the occupied lands in the early 2000s under the pretext of confronting Palestinian attacks.
Israel started building the separation barrier, which is a mix of metal fencing, barbed wire and concrete walls, in 2002 to expand its settlement
According to a 2004 ruling by the International Court of Justice and the United Nations General Assembly, the construction of the apartheid separation barrier is in violation of the international law.
New Israeli settlements displace Bedouins
Media reports indicate that a new Israeli construction plan is to displace thousands of Palestinian Bedouins in the Negev region, south of Israel.
The regime’s housing minister, Yoav Galant, recently praised the Israeli cabinet’s approval of his plan to establish several towns in the southern Negev desert.
Some 7,500 people will be forced to leave their homes to pave the way for the construction of new Israeli settlements there.
Every year, hundreds of Bedouin homes are demolished as part of Israel's settlement expansion projects.
Human rights groups say the plan is part of Israel’s ongoing policy to push Bedouins out of the occupied territories and build Jewish-only communities.
Palestinians say Israel is in fact seeking ethnic cleansing in an attempt to Judaize the occupied territories.
Israel forces kill two more Palestinians
Also on Thursday, at least two Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces as Tel Aviv’s crackdown intensifies in the occupied territories.
According to the Israeli media, one of the Palestinians was killed at a checkpoint south of Nablus. He was shot while allegedly trying to stab an Israeli.
Earlier, a Palestinian youth was killed and several others wounded during clashes in Qatanna, northwest of al-Quds (Jerusalem). Clashes erupted after Israeli forces stormed the town and raided a number of Palestinian homes in a door-to-door search operation.
Tensions in the occupied Palestinian territories have dramatically escalated in recent weeks due to the Israeli regime’s imposition of restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshipers to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East al-Quds.
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the recent escalation of violence since the start of October.
Editor's note: This article has been edited from the source material
