On Sunday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers cut at least 25 olive and almond trees and demolished retaining walls around farmlands in Husan village, west of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.
Mohammad Sabateen, one of the invaded lands’ owners, said the colonizers cut 15 olive trees and 10 almond trees in his land and demolished retaining walls.
Sabateen added that the colonizers also destroyed and removed fences surrounding lands owned by three siblings, Raji Abdul-Aziz Sabateen and his brothers Mohammad, Mahmoud, and Awad.
The invaded lands are surrounded by the illegal Bitar Illit colony, built on stolen Palestinian lands in the area, and are subject to frequent Israeli violations.
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.”
