Palestine: The occupation uprooted 8 thousand trees in one week

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture documented yesterday, Thursday, the Israeli occupation forces uprooting and bulldozing more than 8 thousand trees, most of them olive trees, in one week, estimating the material losses at about 7 million dollars.

The Ministry stated in its weekly report that the Palestinian territories witnessed a "dangerous and accelerating" escalation in the attacks by the occupation army and settlers, directly targeting the agricultural sector and food security sources.

It viewed that these attacks, which occurred in the third week of December/January of this year, come within a systematic policy "aiming to control the land and empty it of its original inhabitants".

According to the report, the Israeli attacks focused on the north and center of the West Bank, where the occupation army uprooted 5 thousand olive trees in the village of Silat al-Harithiya west of Jenin (north), and 3 thousand other trees in Turmus Ayya east of Ramallah (center).

The bulldozing operations also included: 156 olive trees in Mukhmas east of Jerusalem, and 100 fig trees in the towns of Ramin and al-Nazla al-Sharqiya in Tulkarm (north), and 13 olive trees in the village of al-Funduq east of Qalqilya (north), in addition to 19 olive trees (including 10 ancient ones) in Deir Istiya in Salfit (north), and al-Minya in Bethlehem (south).

In addition to the trees, the report documented the destruction of agricultural infrastructure, where 13 water wells and a farming room were demolished, irrigation networks were sabotaged and pumps stolen, in addition to destroying 82 beehives and poisoning sheep heads in various areas.

The attacks by the occupation army and settlers in the West Bank are escalating, and often coincide with harvest and farming seasons, with the aim of pressuring Palestinian farmers and pushing them to leave their lands for the sake of settlement expansion.

During November/December last year, settlers carried out 621 attacks on Palestinians and their property in the West Bank, according to data from the Palestinian Anti-Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Coinciding with the start of the genocide war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation army and settlers killed more than 1,103 Palestinians in the West Bank, wounded about 11 thousand, in addition to arresting more than 21 thousand.