Israeli settlers uproot hundreds of trees belonging to Palestinian in West Bank
Israeli settlers stormed Palestinian agricultural land south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Monday, destroying hundreds of olive and grape trees, vandalising infrastructure and bulldozing fields.
According to local media outlets and Bedouin rights group Al-Baydar, about 850 olive and grape trees were uprooted in Khirbet Khallat al-Homs, southeast of Massafer Yatta.
Al-Baydar said that settlers from the Susya settlement bulldozed and destroyed large tracts of agricultural land in the area.
Approximately 500 grapevines and 350 olive trees belonging to the Obeid al-Masri family were damaged by the settlers.
"The Khallat al-Homs area has long witnessed daily violations," the organisation said, noting that settlers have used Palestinian land for grazing their own livestock.
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The organisation warned that settler attack threaten "the stability of farmers and directly affects their livelihoods".
Settler violence across the occupied territory has spiked since 7 October 2023, with assaults on farmers during the olive harvest season now a routine occurrence.
Attacks across the occupied West Bank
In the past two days, settler attacks have been reported by Palestinian residents in Hebron, Nablus, Jordan Valley, Jerusalem and Jericho.
On Tuesday in the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus, settlers set fire to an agricultural tractor and sprayed racist graffiti on the walls of a home.
Meanwhile, land in Khirbet al-Deir, north of the Jordan Valley, was dug up by settlers so they could more easily access the area's natural springs.
New settler outposts were also set up in the town of Mikhmas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem.
Settlement construction in an occupied territory is illegal and constitutes a war crime, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
Despite its illegality, the Israeli government has authorised thousands of new settler homes every year.
Outposts, settler areas built without Israeli government authorisation, are also on the rise and are rarely addressed by authorities.
Ameer Dawood, from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC), told Middle East Eye previously that the escalation of settler violence over the past two years is “both alarming and unprecedented in scale and intensity”.
“They are part of a steady pattern of escalating violence that has intensified over the past year,” Dawood said.
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