[Sunday, February 2, 2014] Israeli settlers invaded Palestinian orchards in the West Bank districts of Nablus and Ramallah, uprooting more than 1,425 olive trees and saplings.Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of Israeli Settlements File, at the Palestinian Authority in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that extremist settlers uprooted 425 olive trees in the ath-Thahra area, in Turmus Ayya village, near the central West Bank city of Ramallah.
The trees belong to resident Mohammad Jamal Abu Awwad, the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) nad Ma’an News Agency has reported.
Furthermore, settlers of the Shilo illegal settlement, uprooted more than 1,000 olive saplings planted by the residents nearly three years ago, in Sinjel village, between Nablus and Ramallah.
The saplings were planted as part of a project funded by the International Red Cross, and are located in a number of orchards belonging to the villagers.
Daghlas said that the recent attacks show a further escalation in assaults carried out by fanatic Israeli settlers against the Palestinian people, their lands, homes and property, and their holy sites, including graveyards.
He called on international human rights groups to intervene, and to stop the Israeli violations against the Palestinian people in different parts of the occupied territories.
