PRESS RELEASE

Released @ 1:00 hours GMT, 12^th December, 1998

The Israeli Occupation Forces Step Up Settlement Expansion in the Gaza Strip

The Israeli Occupation Forces have stepped up their activity concerning the settlements in the Gaza Strip. Wide-scale bulldozing can be witnessed in various areas of the Gaza Strip, especially close to the settlements in the agricultural areas (Khan Younis and Rafah City) and the area of Tel Zorub, which lies close to the Egyptian border. There are 19 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip, in which approximately 5,000 settlers live. It is clear that Israeli settlement activity has taken on a new life, especially after the signing of the Wye River Memorandum on 23^rd October, 1998. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has been following up this activity and its observations are as follows:

1. Three hundred and fifty dunums of land has been bulldozed in Tel Gnam, in the Khan Younis agricultural area (area number 92/5) and in the land beside the Nafi Dughalim settlement, which was established on 5^th January 1998. After PCHR went to the Israeli High Court to intervene, the bulldozing activities stopped temporarily. However, they started again on 29^th October 1998 and are still underway.
2. Since 2^nd December 1998, Israeli bulldozers have been bulldozing on the land beside the north part of the Beit Sidi settlement in the Rafah agricultural area). One hundred and fifty dunums of land has been affected in this area, in an attempt to confiscate the land.
3. On 6^th December 1998, Israeli bulldozers stepped up their activities on the road between the Gush Katif settlement and the Budaloh settlements (in the Rafah agricultural area). Approximately 30 dunums of land has been affected.
4. On 9^th December 1998, five dunums of land planted with trees bearing unpicked fruit were bulldozed in the Tel Zorub area in Rafah (beside the Egyptian border).
5. Meanwhile, the Israeli Occupation Forces continue the theft of sand from the Rafah agricultural area. Throughout the last two months, the unusual movement of Israeli cars transferring sand from the Gaza Strip to Israel by the settlers of Budaloh and Beni Adsunah settlements (located to the west of Rafah and Khan Younis City) has been noticed. These activities not only contribute to negatively changing the geography of the land, but also must be considered part of the organised theft of Palestinian natural resources by Israel.

PCHR expresses its deep concern about the stepping up of settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and it calls upon the international community to take immediate measures to stop these illegal Israeli practices. Five years have passed since the start of the peace process and Israel still has control of approximately 40 percent of the land in the Gaza Strip and approximately 90 percent of the West Bank land. Israel attempts daily to change the geography of these two areas and to guarantee its control of them. The policies of land confiscation and settlement expansion are considered the most dangerous of Israeli practices and its starkest violations of international law and the IV^th Geneva Convention, in particular. The overall aim of these policies is to prevent the Palestinians from obtaining the right to decide their own future, from controlling their land and from building their state.