BETHLEHEM, (PIC)
Settlers have destroyed hundreds of olive saplings in lands in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem, after they infiltrated into the area.
Citizen Hussein Shakarneh, one of the affected individuals, expressed his surprise on Monday when he entered the land owned by him and his cousin, Ali Shakarneh, in the Ain Faris area west of the town, located between the Beitar Illit settlement and the villages of Wadi Fukin and Jab’a. He discovered that the settlers had cut down 200 olive saplings.
Local sources reported that a group of settlers had established a pastoral outpost in the Ain Faris area, where they set up two large sheds for raising livestock. He noted that these actions will deprive citizens of their land, which covers an area of approximately 2,000 dunums, pointing out that the mentioned area has been subjected to repeated attacks by settlers from Beitar Illit, involving the discharge of sewage water, which has led to crop damage and water contamination.
The Wall and Settlement Affairs Authority stated that settlers killed 10 citizens last year and ignited 373 fires in properties and fields in the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah, Al-Bireh, Jenin, and Tulkarem, uprooting and damaging a total of 14,212 trees, including 10,459 olive trees.
Al-Khalil topped the list of governorates in terms of the number of damaged trees, with 3,980 trees affected, followed by Bethlehem with 3,791 trees damaged and uprooted, and then Nablus with 2,737 trees affected and uprooted.