OCHA: Israeli settlers torched 1,000 olive trees in West Bank

Zionist settlers have set fire to more than a thousand olive trees and stole large quantities of Palestinian crops in the occupied West Bank over the past week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday.

In its “Protection of Civilians” report, covering the period between 6 and 19 October, the UN body explained that Zionist settlers have carried out 19 attacks against Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest season in the occupied West Bank, injuring at least 23 of them.  

Zionist settlers hurled stones at and physically assaulted Palestinian citizens while picking olives in their groves at the entrance to Burqa village in Ramallah before Zionist regime’s occupation troops intervened and fired tear gas canisters at them, leaving 13 of them wounded and setting ablaze 30 olive trees.   

Nearly 450 Palestinian olive trees were torched by Zionist settlers near the illegal settlement of “Mevo Dotan”, built on large swathes of occupied Palestinian land.

Over the past two weeks, 85 Palestinian citizens, including 11 children, were injured by Zionist regime’s occupation forces and settlers during raids into several Palestinian towns and villages across the occupied West Bank.

According to the UN report, 21 of the wounded Palestinians were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets and ten with live rounds, while the rest of them were given treatment for tear gas inhalation.

Zionist regime’s occupation forces have conducted 126 arrest campaigns against Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank over the last two weeks, in which 132 citizens were abducted.

Half of these campaigns were documented in occupied Al-Quds, where Zionist regime’s occupation troops arrested 30 Palestinians, including 13 children.

The Zionist regime’s occupation authorities also knocked down eight Palestinian-owned structures in the occupied West Bank, displacing 12 Palestinian citizens.

Five of the demolished structures are located in two communities in Massafer Yatta town in Hebron, which had been designated as a ‘firing zone’ by the Zionist regime’s occupation army.

On at least 30 occasions, Zionist regime’s occupation troops fired warning shots at Palestinian citizens along Gaza’s eastern fence and at Palestinian fishermen off the coast of the besieged Gaza Strip, but no casualties were reported.