During the last few weeks, experts from Bar Ilan University began to study an area called Khirbet Tibnah, near the Palestinian village of Nabi Salih.

Its inhabitants claim that the work is being carried out on privately-owned land, but the university considers it to be state-owned, citing a decision by the Civil Administration, the Israeli military authority in charge of bureaucratic work in the occupied West Bank, the newspaper reported.

Cited by the newspaper, activist Bassem Tamimi affirmed that she has documents proving her ownership of the land.

Haaretz points out that Israeli archaeological excavations in the West Bank are unusual, among other reasons because international journals specialized in the subject refuse to publish the results of such research in occupied territories because they violate international law.

The Second Protocol to the Hague Convention, which Israel did not sign, prohibits such excavations, except those necessary to protect a historic site.

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