© Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFPIsraeli soldiers stand by as masked Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinian protesters (unseen) gathering during a demonstration against construction on an Israeli outpost near the Palestinian village of Turmusaya and the settlement of Shilo, north of Ramallah in the West Bank, on October 17, 2019.
Israel has been using settler violence as a "major informal tool" to drive Palestinians from farming and pasture lands in the West Bank, an Israeli rights group said Sunday.
A report by B'Tselem detailed the takeover of nearly 30 square kilometers (11 square miles) of farm and pasture land in the West Bank by settlers over the past five years.
As an example — one of five test cases documented in the report — the group cited the Ma'on Farm, erected illegally in the southern West Bank but together with a sub-outpost now controls some 2.64 square kilometers, including roads and pasture used by the area's Palestinian residents.
Comment: Ironic that Gantz is now speaking out against the very fanatics successive Israeli governments have enabled for decades.