Israeli military and settler attacks against Palestinian farmers harvesting olives continued on Saturday in various areas of the occupied West Bank, involving the arrest of a farmer, seizure of agricultural equipment, and forcing others to leave their lands under threat of weapons.
The attacks targeted three governorates: Ramallah, Hebron, and Bethlehem, according to local sources, eyewitnesses, and a Palestinian human rights organization. In Ramallah governorate, Israeli forces arrested farmer Hazem Samhan (35) while he was harvesting in the village of Ras Karkar, and seized agricultural equipment belonging to Palestinian Nessim Muhammad Abu Aliya in the Al-Mughayir plain.
For his part, Israeli settlers attacked farmers in Khirbet Al-Kharaba, east of the town of Al-Samu in Hebron governorate, under the protection of the Israeli military, according to the "Al-Bider" organization for the defense of Bedouin rights. Settlers also hindered residents' access to their fields in the town of Al-Shuyukh, northeast of Hebron.
In Bethlehem governorate, armed settlers invaded olive groves near the village of Marah Rabah, assaulted the farmers, and forced them to leave their lands under threat of weapons. These attacks come a day after the Wall and Settlement Resistance Authority documented 22 attacks in five governorates in the West Bank.
The government body stated that the attacks resulted in civilian injuries, the arrest of farmers and foreign solidarity activists, as well as the theft of olive crops and harvesting equipment and the burning of an agricultural facility. Last August, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described Israelis involved in violence against Palestinians as "terrorists."
Last June, 14 UN rapporteurs warned that the sharp escalation in the pace of "settler terrorism" poses an existential threat to Palestinian communities. Since the start of the October 2023 war, the Israeli military and settlers have intensified their attacks against Palestinians and their property in the West Bank.
Israeli forces had tightened restrictions on Palestinian movement in Ramallah by setting up sudden military checkpoints at the entrances to the towns of Singil, Tarmasiya, Deir Abu Mash'al, Yabrud, and Deir Dabuan.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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