Jewish settlers on Thursday uprooted hundreds of olive trees in the towns of Yatta and Tarqumiya, near Hebron (Al-Khalil), the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
Fouad al-Amour, Coordinator of the Protection and Steadfastness Committees in Masafer Yatta, told WAFA that illegal Jewish settlers destroyed a one-donum-and-a-half grove planted with over 60 olive trees belonging to Ahmad Hamada.
A group of colonial Israeli settlers backed the IOF, razed yesterday a Palestinian-owned land to pave a settler-only road, and uprooted dozens of olive trees in al-Khalil's town of Tarqomiya, in the southern West Bank. pic.twitter.com/1e4qSXOR7s
— PALESTINE ONLINE 🇵🇸 (@OnlinePalEng) December 22, 2021
Al-Amour added that the assailants came from the settlement outpost of Avigayil, in the occupied South Hebron Hills, while pointing that the move was intended to displace Palestinian farmers and make room for colonial settlement expansion.
Israeli Settlers Cut 360 Olive Trees Near Hebron#Act4palestine pic.twitter.com/LHiVMHEoyo
— palestine (@palestinepal_) December 23, 2021
Meanwhile, settlers also uprooted 300 olive saplings belonging to Atta Ja‘afra and his brother, Aziz, in the al-Taybeh area of the town, according to the coordinator of the Protection and Resilience Committees, Muhammad Abu Dabbous.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
Over 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
(WAFA, PC, Social Media)
