On Friday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked many Palestinian homes and cut olive trees near Bethlehem and Jenin, in the occupied West Bank.
In Bethlehem, the paramilitary colonizers attacked several Palestinian homes in Khalayel Al-Louz village, southeast of the city, and cut olive trees. A Palestinian researcher specializing in Israel’s illegal colonialist activities and the Annexation Wall said the colonizers caused damage to many windows and doors of a home owned by Nader Abu Kamel and raised Israeli flags on the property.
He added that the colonizers also cut at least twenty Palestinian olive trees and assaulted many residents.
It is worth mentioning that, on Thursday, Israeli soldiers invaded the village and fired many gas bombs and concussion grenades at Palestinian homes before storming and ransacking one home.
In addition, paramilitary colonizers from the Homesh illegal colony, built on stolen lands in Jaba’ town, south of Jenin in the northern West Bank, cut dozens of olive trees. Abbas Ghannam, the head of Jaba’ Village Council, said the colonizers invaded olive orchards owned by his sons in the southern area of the village and uprooted dozens of trees.
Last year, the Israeli government decided to reestablish the evacuated Homesh colony, which was evacuated in 2005. Since then, the colony has become a hub for launching ongoing assaults and violations against the Palestinians, their homes, and lands.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
