For a moment, whoever watches the Palestinian, Muhammad Khabisa, may think that he is looking closely at his land in Jabal Subaih, south of the city of Nablus in the West Bank;

It is the last time he will take this look, after the settlers occupied it, but he says - to Al-Jazeera Net - that it is the look of those who plan to uproot the settlers from it, even by force, as they occupied it by force.

Jabal Sabih - in the town of Beita, south of Nablus - is considered the strongest example of the acceleration of settlement in the region, and the scene has been at the fore these days after the Israeli media published aerial and other images from the ground that reflect the size and enormity of this settlement.

With a pace that races against time and indicates the acceleration of settlement;

A few hours after the "Za'atara operation" in early May, the settlers began establishing their outpost "Avitar", which has become a full-fledged settlement on Jabal Sabih. Complete infrastructure services.

The settlers established their settlement on his entire land in Jabal Sobeih in Nablus (Al-Jazeera)

His land..half the settlement

and from 20 dunams (a dunam equals one thousand square meters);

The settlers are constructing their buildings on it in Jabal Sobeeh, 8 of which are owned by Khabeesah, 68;

"This means that half of the settlement is my land," he tells Al Jazeera Net, while standing on the opposite hill watching the settlers' movement with their flags flying over it.

For four decades, all attempts by the occupation and its settlers to take control of Mount Sabih or others in the town of Beita have not succeeded, sometimes under the temptation of money, and at other times by force of arms. .

Khabisa adds that in late April he visited his land, and there was no trace of settlers, and he only saw the destruction caused by the military occupation mechanisms of stone chains and fig and olive trees.

Jabal Al-Arma, where the settlers wanted to build a settlement outpost on it, and the people of Beta (Al-Jazeera) confronted them

For a security purpose, the occupation army set up a military post in Jabal Sabih in 1988, but quickly removed it under the resistance of the people and the martyrdom of 3 of them, and then - since 2000 - settlers made five attempts to settle on the mountain, the last of which succeeded a month ago.

And this "rapid" occupation of the mountain - as described by Musa Hamayel, deputy mayor of Beita and an activist in defending its land - would not have been possible without the support of the occupation army, which "protected the settlers and facilitated the road ahead for them, and even helped them build," and this is confirmed by private photos obtained by Al Jazeera Net.

The occupation also waged a "battle to gain time" to establish the settlement, taking advantage of the tense situation in the West Bank and Jerusalem and the Gaza war.

Israeli soldiers help settlers build in Jabal Sabih settlement (Al-Jazeera)

between political and military

The settlement scheme - whether in Nablus or in the West Bank as a whole - runs at a parallel political and military level, says Hamayel, which explains the construction of 40 settlement units, "part of which are cement", in less than a month, and supplementing them with a network of paved roads, water and electricity services, and a bus line to secure the transportation of settlers.

On the ground, the Israeli army suppresses the peaceful resistance of the citizens;

Live bullets were fired, 3 young men were killed and hundreds were wounded during the past days. Politically, the occupation exploited silence and Arab normalization and Western "cooling" towards its violations.

Settlement construction in Jabal Sobeih varied between caravan and concrete construction with a significant acceleration of time (Al-Jazeera)

And settlement will not stop at 20 dunums, which is the building area only in Jabal Subaih;

Rather, the entire mountain, estimated at 840 dunums, will be Jewish, and the aforementioned settlement will separate the northern West Bank from its southern, and will make the nearby Za’tara checkpoint a gateway between them, and will link Israeli cities such as Tel Aviv to the west with its settlements in the Palestinian Jordan Valley to the east.

An Israeli report - prepared by two Israeli human rights organizations, "B'Tselem" and "Kerem Nabut" in early April - stated that the number of settlers in the West Bank has increased by 222% since 2000. More than 440,000 settlers are distributed in 280 settlements and outposts are looted more of two million acres of Palestinian land.

Satellite images of settlement construction and the construction of a number of main and secondary roads south of Nablus (Google Maps service)

outpost

Recent satellite images, obtained by Sanad Service, show the construction of roads and massive, accelerated construction during the recent period in villages south of Nablus.

Pictures taken between May 28, 2021 and June 5, showed an accelerated construction of settlement units in Jabal Sabih, near the town of Beita, south of Nablus.

The settlement scene throughout the West Bank, as well as south of the city of Nablus, which is surrounded by more than 10 settlements and outposts;

He does not need satellite images to confirm it. A single field tour - such as that carried out by Al Jazeera Net - is capable of revealing the expansionist ambitions of the occupation to swallow the area and turn the lives of Palestinians into hell, especially in the absence of any deterrent to settlers.

This is evident in the new settlement road, which the occupation began with its construction a few months ago, and extends for 7 kilometers in the villages of Hawara and Beita, south of Nablus, thus confiscating and damaging a total area estimated at more than 1,100 dunams.

A side of the settlement bypass road that passes through the villages of Hawara and Beita, south of Nablus (Al-Jazeera)

This street was approved by the occupation government to link the settlements surrounding the city of Nablus, or what is known as the “Nablus colonial envelope” with the settlement of Ariel, the largest in the northern West Bank, to ensure that these settlements are included in any political process, and the settlements of Hebron are linked together.

Within the town of Beita, you can hardly find a wall devoid of a drawing of a martyr, a picture of a prisoner, or a slogan inciting to confront the settlers and expel them from Jabal Sabih. The confrontations have not extinguished their fire for more than a month. Two young men were martyred, hundreds were wounded, and others were arrested, and the occupation closed its entrances with stone and earth mounds, increasing the punishment, but it refused to surrender, and promised to return Jabal Sabih as it was.