Israeli occupation forces and illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked Palestinian farmers and their lands on Friday, abducting three Palestinians, destroying large areas of crops with chemical agents in Masafer Yatta south of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part, and chasing residents off their land in Halhul.
Local activist Osama Makhamra said Israeli forces chased shepherds in Khirbet Janba in Masafer Yatta, preventing them from reaching grazing areas before abducting Shaher Ahmad Issa and his son Ma’moun.
He added that colonizers from the colony of Susiya, built on Palestinian land in Masafer Yatta, destroyed vast areas of wheat and barley fields in Wadi al‑Rakhim, Eghzeiwa, Susiya, al‑Khaldiya, Ma’in, and Wadi Jheish.
The colonizers sprayed the fields with chemical substances late last night using drones, causing severe agricultural losses.
The contamination now threatens livestock as well, since herding communities rely heavily on these crops and on grazing areas that have been polluted by the chemicals.
In Halhul, paramilitary colonizers from a newly established illegal outpost built in July on Palestinian‑owned land in the al‑Jumjuma area attacked farmers in Wadi al‑Shunnar and prevented them from reaching their land.
Israeli occupation forces accompanying the colonizers fired tear gas at the farmers before abducting Jamil Bilal al‑Maghtha.
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Also on Friday, Israeli colonizers carried out multiple coordinated attacks on Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank on Friday, forcing shepherds from their grazing lands in the northern Jordan Valley, assaulting residents south of Nablus, and storming Bedouin and rural areas near occupied Jerusalem.
Across the occupied West Bank, Israeli colonizers attacked agricultural areas, grazing lands, and rural communities, in the West Bank.
The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission has documented a growing pattern of land seizures, crop destruction, and forced displacement, carried out with the backing of Israeli occupation forces to tighten control over strategic areas and pressure Palestinian communities to leave.
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.
