Israeli settlers chop off, uproot scores of trees in Salfit

SALFIT, Hardline Israeli settlers today uprooted or chopped off 90 olive saplings and trees for Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank province of Salfit, according to local sources.

Witnesses told WAFA that settlers uprooted and chopped off nearly 40 olive saplings belonging to Ali Yasin, a local Palestinian citizen from in the village of Yasuf, and another 50 grape trees belonging to Najeh Harb, a Palestinian citizen of Kafr al-Dik village.

Yasin’s son said that as he entered in family’s ranch on the outskirts of Yasuf village, he was shocked that that some 40 olive trees and saplings had been shattered by Israeli settlers the previous night.

Meantime, Harb told reporters that Israeli settlers uprooted 50 grape trees which he had recently planted in a ranch of his own in the north of the Kafr al-Dik village.

Although violence and vandalism by Israeli settlers are commonplace throughout the year, attacks and acts of vandalism by Israeli settlers intensified during the past two months across the occupied West Bank, especially in the north of the West Bank.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli occupation authorities.

There are over 650,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law and consensus.

Source: Palestinian News & Information News Agency