Israeli occupation forces ordered a Palestinian farmer on Wednesday to uproot olive saplings he had planted in his land in the town of Battir, near Bethlehem, the official news agency WAFA reported.

Omar Qaisi, a member of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committees, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers left notices to Palestinian landowners, ordering one of them to uproot the olive saplings he had planted in his plot. Moreover, the farmer was banned from farming his own land.

‘The Forbidden Treasure’: Palestinians’ Struggle to Gain Access to Their Own Land

According to a statement issued by Amnesty International last October, “Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank have recently faced a surge of Israeli military incursions, restrictions on access to land and water”.

“The destruction of their crops by Israeli settlers in line with patterns documented in previous years during the annual olive harvest,” Amnesty continued.

(PC, WAFA, SOCIAL)