Israeli settlements have taken over more than 9,142 acres (almost 37,000 sq km) of Muslim-owned land in the Jordan Valley, according to new documents published Sunday.

The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) claims that 13,590 acres (almost 55,000 sq km) of land belong to the Waqf (Muslim Trust-owned land) and Palestinian sources told the Ha'aretz daily that they are "determined" to get the lands back.

The newspaper's report on Sunday is based on documents and maps compiled by the Israeli Defense Force's Civil Administration (CA), the military body dealing with civilian affairs in the West Bank.

Left-of-center NGO Peace Now's Dror Etkes said he obtained the documents only after a long battle with the CA.

"These documents show once again how easy it is for the state of Israel to take over lands belonging to the Palestinians and build settlements on them," he told Xinhua Sunday.

The report charges that before the 1967 war, Jordanian authorities ordered one tract of land in the region to be removed from the land registry and registered under the Waqf's name.

Ibrahim Za'atra, a Waqf official in Jerusalem, told Ha'aretz that he had documents proving that lands were registered with the Waqf as early as 1955. Now, some of the lands have Israeli residential houses and public buildings on them.

The CA would not comment on the matter, when contacted by Xinhua on Sunday.

The state of Israel has announced about 222,394 acres (900 sq km) of land as "state-owned" in the past, allocating them for the settlements.