A group of right-wing Israeli colonial settlers attacked and destroyed hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in al-Jabaa village, west of Bethlehem on Wednesday, at the height of the harvest season.
Diab Mashaleh, head of the al-Jabaa village council, told the Palestinian Wafa News Agency that the Israeli colonial settlers invaded the Palestinian-owned olive orchards around the village and began chopping and uprooting trees, preventing the Palestinian farmers from harvesting their olives.
This is the second time this week that the colonizers invaded and destroyed olive trees. In this instance, the colonizers killed 300 olive trees in the northern areas of the village.
For Palestinians, the olive harvest is an extremely important season, as a large part of the Palestinian economy is based on the export of olive oil.
Israeli colonizers frequently destroy Palestinian olive orchards in an attempt to undermine the Palestinian economy, as well as to take over Palestinian farmland for the expansion of their colonial settlements. All Israeli settlements are considered illegal under international law.
