Attacks by Settlers in Nablus and Occupied Jerusalem

SadaNews - On Wednesday, settlers cut down hundreds of ancient olive trees in the village of Qaryout, south of Nablus.

Local sources reported that farmers were surprised today when they entered their lands in the western area of the village, after receiving coordination for two days, to find settlers had cut down hundreds of ancient olive trees from their lands, near the "Eli" settlement established on the lands of Qaryout, Sawia, and Eastern Luban.

The sources added that this is the second year in which settlers have cut down trees in the same area.

The olive harvest season in the West Bank has witnessed repeated attacks by settlers and Israeli occupation forces.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the occupation army and settlers have carried out 259 attacks against olive pickers since the season began in the first week of October.

The commission indicated that its teams recorded 41 incidents of assault by the occupation army and 218 by settlers, noting that these assaults varied between violent physical assaults, arrests, restricting movement and access, intimidation in all its forms, and direct gunfire, with assaults concentrated in the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Nablus, and Hebron.

Additionally, lands planted with olives this season have been subjected to 125 attacks, including 46 incidents of cutting, breaking, and leveling olive-planted lands, resulting in the destruction of a total of 1,070 olive trees, according to the commission.

In a related context, groups of settlers stormed a Bedouin village in the Hatrourah area, within the Khan al-Ahmar region east of Jerusalem, under the protection of Israeli occupation soldiers.

Field activist Dahoud Ara'ra reported to the Baidat Rights Organization that the settlers invaded the gathering, roamed between the tents and homes of the residents chanting provocative slogans in an attempt to instill fear among the residents and drive them out of the area, tampering with the families’ properties, and blocking dirt roads leading to the village.