Israeli forces prevented, Saturday, anti-settlement activists from planting olive saplings in the villages located to the east of Yatta, in the Hebron district, according to a local official.
Activists from the Popular Campaign against the Wall and Settlements, as well as the Palestinian Farmers Union, were prevented from planting olive saplings in Sussiya and nearby areas, according to Jihad Nawajeh, head of the Sussiya local council.
He told WAFA that, even though the Israeli military has declared the area a close military zone to prevent farmers and land owners from reaching their land, the anti-settlement activists have succeeded in reaching the land, after getting into a fist fight with the settlers, who tried to force them out of the land.
Nawajeh said that they would continue to plant olive saplings in lands threatened with confiscation by settlers, who regularly cut trees and steal Palestinian land in order to expand illegal settlements.
