On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers invaded the Jabal Al-Hardash area in Tarqoumia town, west of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, uprooted 600 olive trees, and destroyed water tanks, to expand two illegal colonies built on stolen Palestinian lands.
Mahmoud Fatafta, one of the landowners, said the lands are privately owned by members of the Fatafta and Thabayna families and added that the attack is not the first, especially since the army uprooted and bulldozed lands in the area several times over the past few years.
The soldiers also destroyed twenty water tanks, used by the farmers, and demolished agricultural sheds.
Mahmoud stated that the attacks are part of the Israeli plans to expand the illegal Edora and Telem colonies built on stolen Palestinian lands.
He called on various local, regional, and international human rights and legal groups to intervene and end the seriously escalating Israeli violations of International Law and the Fourth Geneva Convention.
In related news, the army uprooted dozens of olive saplings in an orchard owned by a Palestinian from the local Assaf family and surveyed Palestinian lands in Wadi Fukin village, west of Bethlehem.
Over the past four years, the army uprooted dozens of olive saplings and trees in the area, and bulldozed farmlands as part of ongoing illegal colonialist activities.
