NABLUS, (PIC)
Israeli settlers shot at Palestinian farmers while picking olives in their agricultural lands in Nablus and Tulkarem provinces and stole their harvest on Thursday morning.
Local sources reported that settlers assaulted olive pickers in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF).
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the IOF and Israeli settlers have carried out more than 253 attacks on Palestinian farmers since the beginning of the olive picking season, including 184 attacks in the northern West Bank, 113 of which were carried out in the Nablus Governorate.
Meanwhile, other groups of Israeli settlers attacked olive pickers in the village of Shufeh, southeast of Tulkarem.
The Farmer Tahseen Hamed explained that a group of settlers from the Avnei Hefetz settlement, built on Shufa’s lands, and others from the pastoral settlement outpost, attacked the farmers at gunpoint and forced them to leave their lands.
He added that the settlers opened fire on the farmers, with no injuries reported, and chased them from one area to another, claiming that this land belongs to them not to the Palestinians.
He stated that the settlers threatened the farmers not to return to their lands again, pointing out that the lands were planted with ancient olive trees long years before the occupation state was established.
Palestinian farmers in Shofeh are subjected to almost daily attacks, at the hands of settlers, while picking olives, resulting in the destruction and seizure of their agricultural tools, in an attempt to force them to leave their lands.
In every year’s olive harvesting season, Palestinian lands and farmers are subjected to repeated attacks by settlers and IOF. Farmers constantly face obstacles and arbitrary practices that prevent them from accessing their lands, which leads to huge material losses and exacerbates their daily suffering under the occupation.
