WEST BANK, (The Palestine Foundation Pakistan)Extremist settler groups have launched a series of coordinated attacks in recent days targeting Palestinian farmers and farmland in Bethlehem, al-Khalil, and the northern Jordan Valley.
These attacks, which were carried out under military protection, included vandalizing olive trees, planting on Palestinian-owned land, and fencing off grazing areas as a prelude to annexing them.
In the village of al-Maniya, south of Bethlehem, local council chief Zayed Kawazbeh reported that settlers from the illegal Ma’ale Amos settlement vandalized dozens of olive trees planted across about two dunums of land in an area known as al-Qarm.
These dunums belong to a Palestinian citizen called Mahmoud Jabarin, who was assaulted by settlers in a vicious attack that resulted in a broken arm. Despite being the victim, Jabarin was kidnaped by Israeli soldiers, while the settlers who attacked him were not detained.
In al-Khalil, dozens of settlers planted trees on swaths of Palestinian-owned land in the village of Birin, southeast of al-Khalil. Farid Burqan, head of the Birin village council, accused the settlers of intending to seize the land.
Burqan explained that the settlers planted the trees under the protection of Israeli forces, pointing out that such settler violations recur in areas like Masafer Yatta and the town of Bani Na’im, where Palestinian farmers are routinely barred from accessing their lands, while settlers deliberately release their livestock into fields in those areas to destroy crops.
In another incident, a group of settlers attempted to storm the house of a Palestinian citizen in the village of Susya, south of al-Khalil, but local residents managed to fend them off.
In the northern Jordan Valley, settlers fenced off new swaths of Palestinian-owned agricultural land in Khirbet al-Farisiya, in a move aimed at imposing control over the area and preventing Palestinian landowners from accessing their property.
According to local sources, the land grab in Khirbet al-Farisiya took place ahead of the winter planting season, which residents rely on to produce feed for their livestock.
Settlers fenced off hundreds of dunums over the past few months in the northern Jordan Valley as part of a broader policy aimed at pressuring Palestinian residents and forcing them to leave their land.
