Settlers storm Palestinian land and bulldoze olive trees in West Bank

Extremist Jewish settlers stormed the occupied West Bank and bulldozed private Palestinian land in Ramallah yesterday, the Palestinian Information Centre reported, adding that they acted while under the cover of the Israeli occupation forces.

According to local sources, a group of settlers destroyed dozens of dunums of agricultural land in Umm Safa village, northwest of Ramallah.

Village Chief, Marwan Al-Sabah, said that settlers were escorted by soldiers as they bulldozed dozens of dunums planted with perennial olive trees in the southern area of Umm Safa.

Sabah pointed out that settlers had destroyed dozens of olive trees in the same area over the past 48 hours, adding that they also seized hundreds of dunums in the southern area in order to turn it into a pastoral and agricultural outpost.

He warned of an Israeli plan to expel the Umm Safa villagers from the area in order to build an illegal large settlement bloc and then connect it with neighbouring illegal settlements.

The entrances of Umm Safa village have been blocked by the Israeli occupation army since the genocidal war on Gaza started in October 2023.

In the southern West Bank, one settler attacked a vehicle carrying some Palestinian students as they were heading to school east of Yatta.

Director of Education in Yatta, Yasser Mohamed, said that an armed settler intercepted a car transporting students to the Huwara elementary school and slashed one of its tyres with a knife before fleeing. Students suffered panic attacks as a result of the assault.

Meanwhile, Israeli occupation soldiers kidnapped a child and showered local residents with tear gas canisters in Hebron City as groups of Jewish settlers flocked to an archaeological site in the city centre.

In Jericho, settlers guarded by soldiers stormed the archeological site of Herod’s Palace in the Wadi Qelt area, which is located in the village of Ad-Duyuk At-Tahta, where they performed Talmudic rituals.

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