A horde of extremist Jewish settlers on Tuesday went on the rampage through an olive grove in Masafer Yatta in southern al-Khalil uprooting and stealing a number of them.
Local official Fuaad al-Amour said that settlers sabotaged a fence surrounding an olive grove and uprooted and stole 30 olive saplings.
Masafer Yatta spans some 36 kilometers and is comprised of 19 Palestinian hamlets that are home to more than 2000 people.
The Israeli occupation army designated a vast tract of the area a closed military zone for training in the 1980s and “they have sought to remove the communities on this basis” according to a UN report.
Masafer Yatta is classified as being at risk of forcible transfer in what the UN describes as “coercive environment conditions” created through “a range of policies and practices that have undermined their physical security and sources of livelihood.”
Residents are forced to evacuate their homes during military exercises for temporary periods that could last days while helicopters roam above the heads of the communities and heavily armed Israeli troops are present on the ground.
In addition to using the area as a training zone the Israeli occupation authority have expropriated thousands of dunums of land from local residents to establish illegal Jewish settlements including Ma’on and Havat Ma’on whose settlers carry out attacks against the Palestinian communities.
