Settlers continue attacks on Palestinian farmers in occupied West Bank

Extremist Jewish settlers have continued their attacks on Palestinian farmers as they harvest their olive crop in several areas of the occupied West Bank, Arab48.com reported on Sunday.

According to Walid Sabbah, the Mayor of Qaffin, for example, a group of Israeli Jewish settlers protected by the Israeli occupation army attacked local Palestinian farmers as they harvested their olive crop. The settlers from a nearby illegal settlement outpost have made several such attacks recently, said Sabbah. Farmers are often forced to leave their farms at gunpoint, he added.

The olive harvest season is one of the most important times of the year for thousands of Palestinian households in the occupied territories whose income depends heavily on the success of the crop.

In a related incident, extremist Jewish settler attacked a school and set fire to a classroom in the village of Urif, to the south of Nablus. Local Palestinian activist Ghassan Daghlas said that a group of settlers from the nearby illegal settlement of Yitzhar raided the village, attacked the school, shattered some of its windows, set a classroom on fire and vandalised school equipment.

Earlier today, extremist settlers uprooted nearly 120 olive saplings belonging to Palestinians in Qabalan, also near Nablus.

These attacks come amid heightened Israeli military restrictions and the closure of several roads in the area by the Israeli occupation army, coupled with a noticeable increase in attacks by extremist Israeli settlers on vulnerable Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank.

All Israeli settlers, settlements and settlement “outposts” are illegal under international law.

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