TEHRAN - The Israeli occupation regime misuses the silence of the international community, the Arab and Islamic world, and the absolute support of the US to take over more Palestinian lands in the West Bank, says Osman Abu Sobhe, an expert in Israeli affairs.

He called settlements one of the strategic issues of the Zionist project in the long term, noting that settlements are a means of dominance on Palestinian lands and giving them to settlers. The goal behind this measure is to exert pressure on Palestinians and force them to migrate, he lamented. 

However, the Palestinians will never leave their lands, he added.

Pointing to the humiliating silence of the world, particularly those who claim democracy and human rights, Abu Sobhe said these false claimants are associated with atrocities against Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank and the theft of the Palestinian lands. 

He called the shepherd settlement the most dangerous one, explaining that the Zionist settlers are given sheep herds. They are supported with money and even weapons to stay in Palestinian pastures, he added.   

The Zionist settlers, with the support of the army and police, leave no space for herds belonging to Palestinians, causing economic hardships for them. 

He said Palestinians, particularly those located in Aria C in Jordan Valley, are not supported.

Under the Oslo II Accord signed in Egypt in 1995, the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B, and C.

Since the start of Israel's genocidal war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, Israeli occupation forces have conducted near-daily raids and expanded their military operations in the occupied West Bank. 

In the last two years, occupation forces have killed hundreds of Palestinians, demolished hundreds of homes, and displaced tens of thousands in the deadliest aggression on the West Bank in 25 years.

Immediately after the ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas went into effect on 19 January, the occupation army started a new deadly military operation against several refugee camps in the northern West Bank, demolishing homes and infrastructure and displacing more than 40,000 Palestinians.