Jewish Israeli settlers have reportedly raided a Palestinian-owned orchard, west of Bethlehem, where they destroyed 58 trees early Friday morning, according to the victim of the raid.Raji Abd al-Aziz Sabateen told Ma’an News Agency that, when he went to his field outside the village of Husan, Friday morning, he found that 58 trees had been mangled and torn apart.
He said that this is not the first time that Israeli settlers from nearby Betar Illit have attacked his orchard, located directly alongside the settlement.
Betar Illit was built on land belonging to the village, where it lies wedged between the ‘Seam Zone’ of Husan and several other Palestinian villages, and was confiscated by Israeli authorities.
Hasan is on the Israeli side of the separation wall, in a quasi-militarized zone within the West Bank.
According to the UN, around 7,500 Palestinians who reside in the zone are also required to have special permits in order to continue living in their own homes, and another 23,000 will be isolated upon the wall’s completion.
Villages within the seam zone experience severe restrictions on their movements, Ma’an reports, as they are completely surrounded by areas, under Israeli control and cut off from other Palestinians, where Israeli forces require them to obtain permits in order to travel.
