Settlers uproot 1,000 olive trees in Turmus Ayya near Ramallah

Israeli settlers uprooted and vandalised at least 1,000 olive trees in the town of Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah, according to local officials.

A member of the town’s council, Abdullah Awad said settlers entered the agricultural plain at dawn accompanied by a bulldozer from the nearby Shiloh settlement, bulldozing farmland and uprooting trees across an area of around 50 dunams (about 10 acres) belonging to local families.

Awad said the area has faced an intensifying settlement campaign over the past three years, including repeated attacks on farmland and restrictions preventing farmers from accessing their land.

He added that approximately 25,000 olive trees have been uprooted in the area during that period, without formal military orders or land confiscation procedures.

The plain, which spans around 6,000 dunams and is considered one of the town’s most important agricultural areas, is subjected to near-daily attacks, threatening residents’ livelihoods and limiting cultivation.

Awad called on official bodies and human rights organisations to intervene urgently to halt what he described as a “massacre” targeting the agricultural land in Turmus Ayya.

READ: Christian nun injured in settler attack in Jerusalem