Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out a series of attacks across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, destroying olive trees, vandalizing cemeteries, targeting isolated Palestinian communities, and damaging vehicles and livestock from Salfit in the central West Bank to Hebron and Nablus in the south and north.
In Salfit, colonizers from a herding outpost in the Wadi al‑Sha‘er area cut down more than 40 fruit‑bearing olive trees east of the city. The trees belonged to farmer Nash’at Shtayyeh and were located near the Zaytouna University.
Shtayyeh said he visits his land daily despite repeated threats and assaults by colonizers, including armed intimidation and stone‑throwing.
He added that the trees were planted decades ago and form his family’s only source of income, noting that the attack caused severe agricultural and financial losses.
In a separate attack in the Salfit district, colonizers stormed the town of Kifl Hares and attempted to burn a mosque while vandalizing Palestinian property during a pre‑dawn assault.
In the central West Bank, colonizers were seen lying in wait for residents of the Abu Faza‘ community in the town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah.
The assault included surrounding the community from all directions, cutting off its water supply, and damaging homes and crops. The community, home to roughly 18 families, has faced continuous harassment and pressure.
In the southern West Bank, colonizers continued their repeated attacks on the cemetery shared by the villages of Kisan and Rashayda, east of Bethlehem.
Local sources reported that colonizers destroyed the headstones of five graves, only five days after a similar attack.
The cemetery, located three kilometers east of the villages, contains more than 2,000 graves, three water wells, and a prayer area.
Colonizers have repeatedly tried to prevent Palestinians from burying their dead there, including on Sunday when they attempted to stop residents of Rashayda from burying a child. Residents confronted the colonizers and completed the burial.
Also east of Bethlehem, colonizers uprooted more than 150 Palestinian‑owned trees near the village of Nahalin in the southern West Bank.
In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern West Bank, colonizers vandalized the memorial of the late Suleiman Al‑Hathalin, 75, in Khirbet Um al‑Khair, destroying the monument and the trees planted around it. This marks the fifth time the memorial has been targeted.
Al‑Hathalin, a symbol of steadfastness in Masafer Yatta, was killed in when Israeli forces ran him over at the entrance to Khirbet Um al‑Khair.
In another incident in the Hebron district, colonizers stole sheep from the Wadi al‑Haseen area in the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank.
Video footage from northeast of Hebron also documented a colonizer directly participating in the assault and abduction of a Palestinian young man. The colonizer is seen pinning the youth to the ground with his full weight and pressing on his neck to immobilize him while Israeli soldiers carried out the arrest.
In the northern West Bank, colonizers attacked the village of Majdal Bani Fadel, south of Nablus, before dawn.
Local sources said colonizers stormed the Al‑Jubail area, smashing two vehicles belonging to resident Mohammad Nazmi Zain al‑Din and slashing their tires.
In a separate attack south of Nablus, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles near the town of ‘Urif, damaging several cars.
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.
