Civil Organizations: What is happening around Qalandiya is a prelude to more extensive occupying measures to separate and annex the area

SadaNews - The network of Palestinian civil organizations condemns the ongoing occupation procedures for the third consecutive day around the Qalandiya camp, Kafr Aqab, and the neighboring town of Hazma, as well as the entire area located north of the occupied city of Jerusalem, which has seen the demolition of facilities and shops, where occupation forces destroyed more than 40 commercial shops in less than 24 hours, and delivered demolition orders under the pretext of lack of licensing to dozens of other shops, in addition to the leveling and closure of several roads, the expansion of some, and the opening of new streets in areas adjacent to the separation wall, along with successive raids and incursions involving large numbers of occupation soldiers, bulldozers, and military equipment, as well as the imposition of curfews and a complete lockdown affecting around 120,000 citizens who are denied movement and transportation due to these measures and the transformation of dozens of homes into military barracks.

The network affirms that the ongoing measures around the Qalandiya camp and Kafr Aqab are an extension of the same policy and crimes of the occupation in the camps of northern West Bank, and in the context of targeting the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) building just days ago in Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem and the demolition of several of its premises, which poses a direct threat to the vocational training center of the agency located on the main street in Qalandiya, which is at risk of being demolished. The network considers what is happening aims to re-engineer the geography of the camp in preparation for more extensive steps and procedures in the coming phase, including the displacement of residents and the termination of the Palestinian presence in the area located between Jerusalem and Ramallah, entrenching the annexation and full segregation plan within the framework of the ethnic cleansing methodology led and fueled by the occupation government to completely empty the area of its residents and change its character as part of what is known as the "Greater Jerusalem" plan, especially around Qalandiya Airport.

The network warns of the malicious intentions behind the ongoing actions and calls for immediate action from the United Nations, human rights institutions, and international bodies to stop these procedures immediately, as they represent a new pattern of the ongoing genocide against Gaza that has not stopped, and these practices coincide with the escalation and widening of settler assaults and the commission of more crimes across the West Bank, attacking Palestinian villages, towns, and rural areas, and assaulting homes, crops, and vehicles, while suffocating the means of life and terrorizing citizens to force them to leave. It also calls for broad political action at the level of the Palestinian official stance to provide international protection amid the systematic violation of Palestinian land and to ensure accountability and punishment of the occupation state and its leaders for their crimes against the Palestinian people, alongside working to provide the means of resilience and persistence in the area to face the occupation measures therein, including all targeted areas, and to work from various sectors to provide immediate and long-term needs for the citizens there.