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Oron Group

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קבוצת אורון אחזקות והשקעות בע"מ
www.oron-group.co.il

A publicly traded Israeli company active in the fields of civil engineering, infrastructure, real estate and quarrying.

Through its fully-owned subsidiaries, the Group is involved in construction on occupied land and the exploitation of occupied natural resources in the occupied West Bank.

Meitarim Quarry

The company owns and operates the Meitarim Quarry located near the settlement of Tene Omarim in the southern Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank.

The company had two authorization contracts for the operation of the quarry for a total land area of 374 dunams, which were valid until December 2015 and have yet to be renewed. Meitarim Quarry's annual mining rate is 2.5 million tons. In 2022, 2,789,799 tons of aggregates were mined. The company also operates concrete and asphalt plants next to the quarry, and facilities in an area of about 38 dunams for the quarry's activity.

Highway 60 (Tunnel Road) Expansion

Oron carries out the construction of a highway in the occupied West Bank, connecting West Bank settlements to Jerusalem.

In 2020, Oron Infrastructure and Construction Ltd. won a tender to carry out tunneling, bridge construction and paving works in the expansion of the southern section of Highway 60 in occupied East Jerusalem, estimated at NIS 300 million.

Highway 60, also known as Tunnel Road, passes directly under the Palestinian town of Beit Jala connecting Gush Etzion settlements in the occupied West Bank to Jerusalem, and providing access to Jerusalem while bypassing surrounding Palestinian villages and neighborhoods. The highway serves vehicles with Israeli license plates only.

The expansion project includes the construction of a new road, tunneling, bridge construction and paving works in the southern section of Highway 60 between the settlement neighborhood of Gilo in occupied East Jerusalem and the settlement of Beitar Ilit in the occupied West Bank. The expansion is designed to double the highway’s capacity and to ease settlers’ movement between Jerusalem and the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and settlements farther south. More than 12 dunams of land were confiscated by the Israeli Civil Administration from the Palestinian village of al-Khader and the city of Beit Jala for the highway expansion.

In February 2022, the company breached the new tunnel. As of September 2023, the company is still carrying out work for the new highway as part of the project.

Settlement construction

In 2019, the company’s fully owned subsidiary Oron Real Estate, was involved in an expansion project of the settlement of Eshkolot in the occupied West Bank. The project included the marketing of 64 lots in the settlement in an area of half a dunam each, with 40 of which are villas and 24 of which are plots for independent construction as part of an expansion project of the settlement. The company’s stake in the project was 80%.

Jerusalem Light Rail

In June 2021, the company’s fully-owned subsidiary Oron Infrastructure and Construction won the tender for the construction of a “Park and Drive” parking lot in Mount Hotzvim in Jerusalem, part of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) network.

The JLR network is a large-scale Israeli transport infrastructure project connecting large settlement blocks in occupied East Jerusalem to the center of the city. The parking lot, located adjacent to the Green Line, will be connected to the JLR Blue Line station and is designed to serve the traffic coming from the settlement neighborhoods of Ramot and Ramat Shlomo, among others. 

The construction cost of the parking lot is estimated at NIS 124 million, and it is expected to include 5.5 floors in a total area of about 35,000 square meters with a total of 940 parking spaces. The works include the construction of an underground passage for vehicles and pedestrians, and ramps for the light rail.