Israeli settlers confiscate Palestinian farmland in the West Bank

Israeli settlers have been confiscating tens of dunams of private Palestinian land since Sunday in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, QudsPress reported yesterday.

Local Palestinian sources told QudsPress that the Israeli Jewish settlers allocated Palestinian farm lands in the neighbourhoods of Qaryout and Madma in the south of Nablus and have been planting barbed wire around them.

Coordinator of the Popular Committee Against Settlements in Qaryout, Bashar Qaryouti, said: “Since Sunday evening, the Israeli Jewish settlers from a nearby settlement built on the private Palestinian farms in the west of the neighbourhood.”

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He said that the settlers have been working under the protection of the armed security guards of the settlement, noting that work started without prior notice.

Qaryouti added that the settlers prevented Palestinian farmers from accessing their farms and attacked several Palestinians who questioned them.

The activist told QudsPress that the Israeli occupation authorities replied to the Palestinian Authority request about clarifications related to the settlers’ activities in the area, noting that the Israelis denied that the Jewish settlers are carrying out any activity in the area.

“The Israeli reply proves that the Israeli occupation authorities facilitate these violations,” Qaryouti told QudsPress.

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Settlers are also continuing to steal the water from the Al-Sha’ra Well, which is used by the farmers of Madma to irrigate their farms.

The settlers also prevent Palestinian farmers from accessing their farmlands around the well, and instead, the Chief of the Madma Village Council Tal’at Ziyadeh said.

Settlers had placed a large water pipe to transfer the water from the well to the farms inside the settlement of Eli located in the area, he explained.