On Monday evening, illegal paramilitary colonizers set fire to fruit-bearing trees and agricultural crops in Khirbet Khallet al-Furn, part of the village of Birin, east of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
Fared Burqan, head of the Birin Village Council, stated that the paramilitary set ablaze vineyards, almond, olive, and citrus trees in the Khallet al-Furn area.
He added that the fire spread across more than 70 dunams of farmland cultivated with barley, clover, and other crops, affecting lands owned by the Dana, Deek, and Hanjouri families, among others.
Burqan added that colonizer attacks, often carried out in coordination with Israeli forces in Birin, aim to displace Palestinian residents and expand an illegal colonialist outpost and the nearby Bnei Hefer colony, both built on Palestinian-owned lands.
He called on local and international organizations to take urgent action to protect Palestinian families and halt ongoing colonizer violence.
On Sunday night, a group of colonizers destroyed power generators supplying electricity to Khirbet Iqwawis, in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.
This incident follows a similar attack last week when colonizers destroyed power generators in Shu’ab al-Batem, another area in Masafer Yatta.
On Monday, Israeli forces invaded and completely demolished a Palestinian Bedouin village in Masafer Yatta, displacing dozens of families and rendering them homeless.
A report by the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission, revealed that Israeli forces and paramilitary colonizers committed a total of 1,693 assaults in April alone.
The report detailed that Israeli military forces carried out 1,352 of these incidents, while colonizers were responsible for 341 attacks, primarily concentrated in Hebron (292 incidents), Ramallah and Al-Bireh (269 incidents), and Nablus (254 incidents).
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 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.”
