On Wednesday, a group of illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers cut down more than 200 ancient olive trees and over 100 fruit-bearing almond trees in the town of Sa’ir, located northeast of Hebron, in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Local resident Issa Mohammad Shalalda stated that groups from the illegal colonies of Asfar and Kfar Eldad, both illegally built on Sa’ir’s land, used electric saws to cut the trees in the Umm al-Batem area of Wadi Sa’ir.
Shalalda added that the trees are in orchards he and his brother, Ezzat, near the illegal two illegal colonies.
This incident follows a similar attack last month, when colonizers from the same two colonies set fire to dozens of dunums planted with grapevines, olive trees, and almond trees.
Early Wednesday morning, illegal Israeli paramilitary colonizers set fire to parts of a Palestinian home in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, in the northern occupied West Bank.
On Monday, Israeli colonizers chased Palestinian herders in Khirbet Al-Farisiyya, located in the northern Jordan Valley of the occupied West Bank, forcing them to abandon grazing lands under the protection of Israeli police.
Earlier Monday, On Monday, Israeli bulldozers continued leveling agricultural land in Beit Ur al-Fauqa, west of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank’s central region, for the second consecutive day, as part of an expansion project serving the illegal Israeli colony of Beit Horon.
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.
