Israeli settlers have escalated their attacks against Palestinian farmers and their lands across the West Bank, Palestinian Agriculture Minister Riyad al-Attari said on Monday, stressing that these attacks aim to harm the olive harvest season.
“We saw trees being cut down and fires set in Salfit, Nablus and Ramallah, and farmers were prevented from accessing their lands in Bethlehem,” he told the official news agency.
Attari's remarks were made few days after the beginning of the harvest season in the Palestinian territories.
Every year, settlers target farmers and their lands during this period, which Palestinians consider a national occasion to make profits.
Settlers take advantage of the fact that many of the olive oil-producing villages are located near their settlements and fall under the control of the Israeli army.
Israeli settlers attacked on Monday Palestinian farmers harvesting their olive crops in the village of Burqa, northeast of Ramallah, according to the village’s Head of Local Council Adnan Habas.
He added that settlers also threw stones at the farmers, who attempted to fend off the attack, inflicting injuries on five of them and damaging two vehicles.
The governor of Ramallah and al-Bireh, Laila Ghannam, stressed that assaults and crimes carried out by settlers under the support of Israeli army forces will only “increase our people’s determination and adherence to their lands and olives.”
Targeting defenseless citizens and destroying their vehicles are criminal practices that demonstrate the hatred of the occupation, its tyranny and insistence on the flagrant violation of all human rights, she noted.
Palestinians also reported settlers stealing olives in lands behind the apartheid wall near the settlement of Etz Efraim, which is established near Salfit in the northern West Bank.
Farmers said settlers stole and damaged the harvest of nearly 60 olive planted on a 120-dunum land.
Thefts were also reported in a village in Nablus. A video showed settlers stealing olive crops from Palestinian lands and vandalizing trees.
Numerous assaults and thefts were recorded within one week, such as cutting trees and setting them on fire, as well as preventing farmers from accessing their lands.
On Monday, Israeli army forces used their bulldozers to close a number of agricultural roads in western Jenin.
The deputy head of Rummaneh Village Council, Nidal al-Ahmad, said forces were also placing blocks in a number of lands to prevent Palestinian citizens from accessing them.
