Jewish settlers uprooted on Monday dozens of olive trees on Palestinians’ lands near al-Mughayyir village east of Ramallah while the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) bulldozed agricultural lands in the Al-Marhat area west of Salfit.
Local sources reported that the settlers of the Adi Ad settlement which was built on the lands of al-Mughayyir village uprooted more than 100 fruitful olive trees.
Last March Jewish settlers uprooted more than 200 olive seedlings in the same area and razed and plowed the lands to conceal their crime.
According to the Oslo Agreement 94.1% of the total area of al-Mughayyir village was classified as Area (C) which Israel has full control over it.
Meanwhile IOF bulldozed reclaimed lands planted with olives grapes and figs in Al-Marhat area west of Salfit during the early hours of Monday dawn.
Local sources stated that Israeli bulldozers under the protection of the IOF soldiers stormed the area at dawn Monday and levelled dozens of agricultural dunums owned by Ziad Zuhd from Salfit.
Many towns and villages in Salfit province have witnessed growing settlement activity in recent weeks coinciding with the weekly quelling of all activities opposing the occupation and settlement.
In Salfit there are 18 Palestinian communities compared to 24 settlements between residential and industrial. The percentage of lands allocated for Palestinian construction in Salfit is only about 6% of the total area compared to 9% for the settlers.
The Israeli occupation authorities expand the Jewish-only settlements and connect them to a water electricity and sewage networks to form a settlement bloc that controls an area of up to 70% of Salfit’s lands.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated that the Israeli settlers burned 1000 olive trees or damaged them and stole large quantities of the crop in the West Bank during the past two weeks.
The occupation army recently issued dozens of military orders to close areas and thousands of dunums of agricultural lands planted with olives in various parts of the West Bank coinciding with the beginning of the olive harvest season.
Military orders encourage the Jewish settlers to encroach on the Palestinian olive fields steal their harvest and cut down trees in addition to burning and damaging the lands under protection of the Israeli soldiers.
