NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities issued orders late Tuesday to confiscate 675 dunams of land in Nablus, having issued similar orders earlier in the day to confiscate 800 acres of land in a western area of the city, a PA official said.

Ghassan Doughlas, who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma'an that the Israeli decision will confiscate land from Awarta and Burin villages in the center and east of Nablus.

Confiscation orders were delivered to the villages late on Tuesday, Doughlas said, adding that the land set to be annexed consists mainly of olive trees.

Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to several farmers in the Nablus villages of Beit Iba, al-Naqura, Zawatta and Ijnisinya on Tuesday, which will see 800 acres of land annexed in order to build an Israeli bypass road.

The dunam, a measurement unit dating back to the Ottoman empire, is equivalent to 1,000 square meters.