Several families of Tal village, west of Nablus city, in the northern
part of the West Bank, complained that Israeli soldiers and settlers
are obstructing their Olive harvest in their orchards, which is costing
the families significant losses.
Omar Eshtiyyeh, head of Tal village council, said that setters of the Gilad illegal settlement, installed west o the village, carried continuous violent attacks against the residents, and repeatedly forced the residents to hand them, under gunpoint, the olives they collected.
Eshtiyyeh added that the army, intensively deployed in the area, witnesses these assaults but did nothing to stop the settlers, neither did the soldiers return the stolen harvest.
“Those settlers are violent, armed and extremists”, Eshtiyyeh stated, “They attack the residents in front of the army, steal their olives, attack and fire at the residents, while the army stands idle”.
Eshtiyyeh also said that resident Khaled Sa'id Yasmin, was violently attacked and beaten by three extremist armed settlers who took away what her harvested during the whole day.
He added that several families found their orchards, close to the settlement, already harvested by the settlers, while other residents did not have a good harvesting season since the army does not allow them to reach their orchards to take care of them, and the settlers repeatedly attacked their orchards, cut and uprooted dozens of trees.
Also, Eshtiyyeh stated that soldiers on several sudden checkpoints had in some cases forced the residents to through the olives on the street so they can step of them.
