Jerusalem News Agency Agencies
In the coming days, the Israeli occupation municipality intends to open the northern section of the tunnel road (60) expansion project, with a length of about 105 kilometers, in an attempt to connect the occupied city of Jerusalem with the “Gush Etzion” settlements in the south of the West Bank, and to facilitate settlers’ access to the city.
The project is considered one of the largest settlement projects, which includes constructing a network of roads and tunnels, which means confiscating thousands of dunams of Palestinian land in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The northern section of the project includes the construction of a 360-meter bridge and a new 270-meter tunnel. In addition to the current tunnels, two additional traffic lanes were added in each direction, as well as a special lane for public transportation, which changes according to peak hours, so that it opens in the morning for travel from “Gush Etzion.” “To the city of Jerusalem, and in the afternoon it will change in the opposite direction.”
The head of the Maps Department at the Arab Studies Association, Khalil Al-Tafakji, said: “The project is considered one of the components of the occupation policy to establish what is called Greater Jerusalem. The occupation authorities began it by digging tunnels in Beit Jala, which is connected to the south of the city of Jerusalem through tunnels. The first tunnel there was approved in 1990, to increase The number of settlers in the Gush Etzion settlement complex, which consists of fourteen settlements, and the network of tunnels is being expanded back and forth, in conjunction with the expansion of the infrastructure of the settlement streets in the Beit Safafa area and the Gilo settlement area on the way to establishing the Greater Jerusalem Project through infrastructure.”
He added: “The occupation is working within a clear strategy, the basis of which is that Jerusalem, east and west, is under Israeli control, by merging them through the construction of tunnels and infrastructure, and what is happening now under the Beit Jala area is part of the Israeli plan to establish Greater Jerusalem and isolate the Palestinian cities (Bethlehem, Bethlehem). Gala, Beit Sahour), in other words, the process of creating a geographical extension between West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem and settlement expansion in the Gush Etzion area to achieve the strategic goal, which is that Jerusalem is indivisible and is the capital of the Hebrew state.”
The occupation municipality and the so-called Ministry of Infrastructure approved a huge plan to expand the settlements south of Jerusalem, link them to the “Kfar Etzion” settlements, and integrate them into the network of roads and tunnels that have been being built for more than two years.
In March 2020, work began to expand all the tunnels south of Jerusalem, including doubling the tunnel route and paving another tunnel, to facilitate the entry and exit of settlers from their settlements towards occupied Jerusalem without passing through Palestinian communities.