WEST BANK, (Palestine Foundation Information Center), The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture said Israeli occupation forces (IOF) and settlers uprooted and bulldozed more than 8,000 trees, most of them olive trees, in the West Bank within a single week, causing material losses estimated at $7 million, amid escalating attacks on the Palestinian agricultural sector.
In a statement issued Thursday, the ministry said it documented what it described as a “dangerous and accelerating escalation” in assaults by IOF and settlers directly targeting agricultural land and sources of food security. It said the attacks amount to a systematic policy aimed at seizing land and displacing its indigenous Palestinian owners.
According to the ministry’s report, the attacks took place during the third week of December and were concentrated in the northern and central West Bank. IOF uprooted around 5,000 olive trees in the town of al-Sila al-Harithiya, west of Jenin, and an additional 3,000 olive trees in Turmus Ayya, east of Ramallah.
The ministry also recorded separate land-clearing operations that included the uprooting of 156 olive trees in Mikhmas, east of Jerusalem; 100 fig trees in the towns of Ramin and al-Nazla al-Sharqiya in Tulkarem district; 13 olive trees in the village of al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya; and 19 olive trees, including 10 mature trees, in Deir Istiya in Salfit district and the village of al-Minya, south of Bethlehem.
In parallel, the report documented widespread destruction of agricultural infrastructure in several areas, including the demolition of 13 water wells and farm structures, damage to irrigation networks, theft of water pumps, the destruction of 82 beehives, and the poisoning of sheep in multiple parts of the West Bank.
The West Bank has witnessed sustained attacks by IOF and settlers, often intensifying during planting and harvest seasons, as part of policies aimed at pressuring Palestinian farmers to abandon their land in preparation for settlement expansion.
Data from the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission showed that settlers carried out 621 attacks across the West Bank in November alone, targeting Palestinians and their property.
Since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, IOF and settlers have killed more than 1,103 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem, wounded around 11,000, and detained more than 21,000 others.
