Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers uprooted 500 saplings and trees on Tuesday in Khirbet Wadi Al-Rakhim, in the town of Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, and carried out additional attacks on Palestinian property.
Anti‑colonization activist Osama Makhmra stated that the colonizers, from the “Susiya” colony, built on Palestinian-owned land south of Hebron and operating under the protection of Israeli soldiers, uprooted and destroyed 500 olive, fig, almond, and other saplings belonging to members of the Romi family in the Al-Farsh area of Khirbet Wadi Al-Rakhim.
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Makhamra added that the colonizers also smashed the fence surrounding the land, damaged property and belongings inside the home of Mohammad Roumi, and shattered the windows of the home of Rasmi Shreiteh. They also spray‑painted racist slogans on the walls of several homes.
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In a separate attack, colonizers cut the fence surrounding land owned by Ayed Abu Mreir in the Wadi Abu Sha’ban area east of Yatta and released their livestock into agricultural fields.
In related news, Israeli soldiers uprooted hundreds of olive trees and issued stop‑construction notices to 20 Palestinian homes in the town of Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier in the morning, Israeli forces uprooted trees in the village of Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, and destroyed hundreds of olive trees in the town of Tuqu’, southeast of Bethlehem in the southern 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 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
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”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
