On Thursday, illegal paramilitary colonizers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were harvesting olives in Salem village, east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank’s northern part, causing injuries.
Local sources reported that colonizers from the “Elon Moreh” illegal colony attacked the farmers in the Khallet al-Mousa area, north of the village, assaulting them, damaging their olive harvest and sacks, and stealing olive-picking equipment.
The sources added that several farmers were injured, and that Israeli soldiers invaded the area, attacked the Palestinians, and fired gas bombs, to force them out of their orchards instead of removing the colonizers.
This year’s olive harvest season in the West Bank has witnessed repeated attacks by colonizers and Israeli soldiers, including killings, burning and cutting down olive trees, stealing crops, and preventing farmers from accessing their lands.
According to the Wall & Colonization Settlement Resistance Commission, since the start of the olive harvest season, occupation forces and colonizers have carried out 407 attacks. The commission recorded 120 attacks by the occupation army, 242 by colonizers, and 45 joint attacks by both.
These attacks ranged from physical assaults, leading to the killing of a citizen by colonizers in Sebastia near Nablus, and a woman by army gunfire in Faqqua near Jenin, to abduction campaigns, movement restrictions, and various forms of intimidation and harassment.
The highest number of attacks was recorded in Nablus with 160 incidents, followed by Salfit with 58, and Hebron with 54. Additionally, there were 44 cases of movement restrictions and denial of access to farmers’ lands, 100 cases of intimidation to force farmers to leave, and 40 cases of physical assault.
On Wednesday, illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers invaded Palestinian orchards in Yasuf village, east of Salfit in the occupied West Bank’s central part, and cut down at least 100 olive trees.
On Wednesday evening, a group of paramilitary colonizers stormed Khirbet Hamsa in the Northern Plains of the occupied West Bank.
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”.
