Israel settlers hold military exercises near Palestinian homes in West Bank

Israeli soldiers block the road leading to the occupied West Bank town of Janatah south of Bethlehem, as settlers wave flags on July 16, 2023 [HAZEM BADER/AFP via Getty Images]

Israeli settlers yesterday destroyed mature olive trees and conducted firing exercises near Palestinian homes in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Authority’s news agency, WAFA, quoted local sources as saying that the settlers destroyed more than ten mature olive trees in the Fateh Sadra area in Masafer Yatta, released their livestock to graze on Palestinian land and prevented Fareed Al-Hamamdeh from accessing his land and pastures.

A settler also randomly fired near Palestinian homes in the Bedouin area of Um Qusah in Masafer Yatta, using the area as a training ground.

Settlers carried out 186 attacks against Palestinians in January, concentrated in the Hebron Governorate, which suffered 63 attacks, 38 in Nablus and 23 in Ramallah, killing 17-year-old Tawfiq Ajaon on 19 January.

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