Before dawn on Thursday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers infiltrated the southern edge of Burqa, a village east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank’s central part and set fire to two Palestinian vehicles.
The Israeli assailants emerged from one of the colonies built on confiscated village land. The vehicles targeted belonged to Yusuf Ahmad Awad, whose car was completely destroyed, and Saad Somrein, whose vehicle sustained partial damage.
Shortly after the arson attack, Israeli occupation forces invaded the village and abducted 18-year-old Mohammad Yousef Ma’tan after they stormed and ransacked his home.
Burqa has been subjected to near-daily assaults by colonizers operating under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Residents have been systematically denied access to vast stretches of their agricultural land. Out of more than 16,000 dunums historically belonging to the village, Palestinians are now confined to just 1,000 dunums – less than 7% of their original holdings.
The most heavily targeted areas were the governorates of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, Nablus in the occupied West Bank’s northern part, and Hebron in the southern part.
The attack on Burqa is part of a broader pattern of coordinated violence and land dispossession, which rights groups warn amounts to systematic ethnic cleansing under military and settler cover.
On Wednesday evening, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers stormed a Bedouin village in the al-Hathrawa area near Khan al-Ahmar, east of occupied Jerusalem in the West Bank, on Wednesday evening.
Also Wednesday, Israeli colonizers cut down dozens of olive trees belonging to citizens in the Nablus and Hebron governorates, in the northern and southern parts of the occupied West Bank.
In addition, Israeli paramilitary colonizers set fire to two civilian vehicles during an assault on the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron.
On Wednesday, the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, Israeli occupation forces and colonizers have carried out at least 259 documented assaults on Palestinian olive harvesters since early October.
These include 41 attacks by soldiers and 218 by colonizers, encompassing physical violence, abductions, movement restrictions, intimidation, and live fire. These ranged from physical assaults and abductions to movement restrictions, intimidation, and live fire.
The Commission also recorded 125 separate attacks on olive groves this season, including 46 cases of cutting, uprooting, or bulldozing trees—resulting in the destruction of at least 1,070 olive trees. The most affected governorates are Ramallah and al-Bireh, Nablus, and Hebron.
These coordinated assaults not only undermine a cornerstone of Palestinian rural livelihood but also function as a mechanism of displacement and land seizure, reinforcing the apartheid regime’s broader strategy of erasure and annexation.
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.
