Palestinian land seized by Israeli army, given to settlers: NGO

Israel grabbed over 10,000 hectares (24,700 acres) of Palestinian land in the past 50 years, citing security needs, but nearly half has gone to its West Bank settlements, an Israeli NGO said Thursday.

A report by Kerem Navot, which monitors Israeli settlement and government land appropriations in the occupied West Bank, covers seizure orders issued between 1969 and 2014.

It says that nearly 47 percent of the land requisitioned under rules permitting seizure for "urgent military needs" is today used for settlement housing or access roads.

Some was initially used to house military infrastructure that was later passed to settlers, it says.

Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six Day war and today about 450,000 Israelis live there in settlements deemed illegal under international law.

The Israeli military told AFP on Thursday that it was unaware of the report but that it would be "studied by the competent authorities".

The report's author, researcher Dror Etkes, said that the first wave of settlement took place under the relatively doveish Labour party.