Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers plowed Palestinian-owned land on Wednesday morning in the Bedouin village of Shallal al‑Auja, north of Jericho in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank, in a coordinated effort to seize the area and annex it to a newly established colonial outpost.
The attack began at dawn, when colonizers arrived with agricultural tractors and started turning over large sections of land belonging to local families, marking a new phase in the ongoing attempts to expand the outpost that was set up in recent months.
Hassan Mleihat, the general supervisor of the Al-Baidar Organization for Defending Bedouin Rights, said the colonizers’ actions were part of a broader plan to cultivate the land and incorporate it into the areas already taken over during the past months.
He explained that the plowing is not an isolated act but a continuation of a systematic effort to impose new facts on the ground, gradually linking the recently seized plots with the expanding outpost.
Mleihat added that several colonizers residing in the outpost accompany Israeli occupation forces during these operations, providing them with protection while actively participating in the intimidation of residents.
He also stated that the colonizers and soldiers have been chasing villagers, assaulting them, and detaining them in an effort to pressure families to leave the area, and noted that these tactics are designed to create an atmosphere of fear and instability, making it increasingly difficult for residents to remain on their land.
The targeted area has already suffered extensive losses over the years due to the construction of the apartheid wall and the spread of colonial outposts that were later “legalized” by the Israeli government.
Residents say the latest actions are part of a deliberate strategy to empty the region of its Palestinian population and consolidate control over the remaining agricultural and grazing lands that sustain Bedouin communities.
Mleihat warned that the ongoing expansion of the outpost threatens to cut off additional areas of the village and further restrict the movement of residents, many of whom rely on these lands for their livelihoods.
He stressed that the combination of land seizure, colonizers’ violence, and military accompaniment forms a single policy aimed at erasing Palestinian presence from the area and replacing it with expanding colonial infrastructure.
Residents of Shallal al‑Auja say they fear the plowing is only the beginning of a new wave of land grabs that will accelerate in the coming weeks, especially as colonizers continue to act with impunity under the protection of the occupation forces.
Community leaders have called for urgent intervention to halt the expansion and protect the remaining lands from further takeover.
