Several Palestinians were injured on Saturday as a result of attacks carried out by Israeli settlers on olive pickers and cactus farmers in the Jerusalem and Hebron areas of the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were picking olives in the lands of the village of Beit Iksa, northwest of occupied Jerusalem. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported that the settlers set out from a nearby settlement outpost, while the Israeli army intervened to protect them, firing live ammunition and tear gas canisters at the locals.
Wafa added that Israeli forces arrested Palestinian Mohammed Sadar after assaulting and mistreating him. In Khirbet Suba, south of Hebron, armed settlers invaded cactus farms and attacked Palestinian farmers, resulting in several of them suffering various injuries and bruises, according to the Al-Bader Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights.
The organization stated that the Israeli army prevented an ambulance from reaching the injured to provide them with treatment. On Friday, the Palestinian Resistance Wall and Settlement Authority documented 21 attacks carried out by the Israeli army and settlers against Palestinian farmers and their lands in the West Bank, amid an escalation in attacks during the olive harvesting season.
In a previous statement, the Authority documented 409 attacks targeting olive farmers, their trees, lands, and agricultural equipment in the West Bank, during the period from October 1 to October 21. It clarified that settlers carried out 317 of the total attacks, compared to 92 attacks carried out by the Israeli army.
Since the start of the Israeli genocide war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, the Israeli army and settlers have escalated their attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem. These attacks include killing and arresting Palestinians, demolishing homes and structures, burning mosques and vehicles, clearing agricultural lands, preventing farmers from accessing their fields, displacing Palestinian communities, alongside settlement expansion.
Palestinians warn that these practices pave the way for Israel to formally annex the West Bank, undermining the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in accordance with relevant UN resolutions. In 1948, Israel was established on Palestinian lands occupied by armed Zionist gangs that committed massacres and caused the displacement of at least 750,000 Palestinians, before Israel occupied the rest of the Palestinian territories in 1967 and refuses to withdraw from them.
Source: Anadolu Agency
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