JENIN,(Palestine Foundation Information Center) Israeli occupation forces (IOF) on Monday bulldozed large areas of Palestinian agricultural land in Khirbet Masoud, southwest of Jenin, to expand an illegal pastoral settlement built atop a mountain in the area.
According to Saleh Amarna, head of the village council in nearby Zibda, IOF uprooted olive trees and leveled lands owned by residents of Zibda and Khirbet Masoud. He noted that the landowners hold official title deeds and private documentation confirming their ownership, yet IOF placed orange warning signs on their groves and proceeded with the bulldozing.
Amarna said the bulldozing aims to expand the pastoral settlement outpost established in 2019. The settlement, he added, has been a source of daily attacks by Israeli settlers who frequently harass Palestinian farmers, release livestock into cultivated fields, and engage in acts of vandalism and violence.
Khirbet Masoud, under Zibda’s jurisdiction, includes the small communities of Iraq al-Dawar, Khirbet Fares, and Khirbet al-Qusur, with a total population of around 350 Palestinians. The area being targeted by the IOF stretches across dozens of dunums of farmland, reaching from Qafin to the Ya’bad mountains, south of Jenin.
Palestinian residents and local leaders say this latest land grab is part of a broader campaign of forced displacement and settlement expansion carried out by the Israeli occupation in the West Bank.
