A security guard working at the Itamar Jewish settlement, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus, torched a number of olive trees that belong to resident of Awarta village, east of the city,No’man Awwad, a 40-year-old local villager, told the Maan News Agency that he saw the security officer parking his jeep near an orchard before he went on to torch olive trees in Al Bayyada area, near Itamar settlement.
Qais Awwad, deputy head of the Awarta village council, told the Maan News Agency that Palestinian firefighters rushed to the scene but were obstructed by the Israeli army at a nearby roadblock.
Ghassan Douglas, in charge of settlements file in the northern part of the West Bank, stated that settlement security guards became a real threat to the residents and their lands.
“Their threat is no less that the threats of fundamentalist settlers”, he said, “They are carrying out repeated attacks against the residents and their orchards”.
