Israel is building yet another bypass road for use by Jewish settlers only and, yet again, it is stealing Palestinian land to do so. The land in question is in Huwwara, to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank. The 7-kilometre road will start from the village of Zaatara and pass through land owned by Palestinians in Huwwara, Beita and Odala. Until now, the access route in the area has been shared by Palestinians and Jewish settlers — whose presence is illegal under international law — who often use it to raid and terrorise the residents of the local villages. Since the Israeli government decided to build the road last April, it has led to the seizure of more than 40 hectares of land from the surrounding Palestinian villages. According to Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, Israeli bulldozers have been razing everything on the land near a military checkpoint outside Huwwara. The plans for the bypass of the village have been in the pipeline for years, although local activist Ghassan Najjar insists that the locals have been kept in the dark until a few days ago. According to organisation, the construction of bypass roads under the pretext of security is a “tactical” way of masking the real goal behind these roads, which is “To expand the settlements and to advance plans for annexing the West Bank at the cost of a two-state solution.”