Israel's settlers change West Bank landscape with hilltop outposts - BBC News

A string of unauthorised communities sit on hills near Palestinian villages, deep inside the territory.

1 day agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, ReutersImage caption, More than 140 settler outposts have been set up without Israeli government approval since the 1990sBy Tim FranksNewshour, BBC World Service, in the West Bank One thing - perhaps the only thing - is beyond dispute. That this is a stunning landscape, particularly now, deep into spring.

The rocky hillsides of this central belt of the occupied West Bank are washed in green. The roads wind and dip. The views can extend, on clear days like these, eastwards all the way to the bare mountains that mark the Jordan Valley.

But this ancient hillscape is also changing. You can see how from Abu Khaled's tumbledown farmhouse, a bumpy few minutes' drive from the Palestinian village of Turmus Ayya.

The 65-year-old says he has lived here for more than 50 years. On the ridge of hilltops around him, there's now a string of Israeli settlements.

Image caption, Abu Khaled, a Palestinian farmer, says settlers want him out of the wayThese are widely viewed as illegal under international law, and all but one of the communities now spread across the skyline have up to this point even been considered illegal under Israeli law, as unauthorised "outposts".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65031877?at_medium=RSS&at_campaign=KARANGA

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