In another blatant act of aggression against the Palestinian people and their land, illegal Israeli settlers on Friday night uprooted and cut down dozens of grapevine, olive, and almond trees in the town of Nahalin, west of Bethlehem.

Head of Nahalin Village Council, Jamal Najahreh, confirmed that the settlers destroyed 100 fruit-bearing trees in the town’s northern area, belonging to one Palestinian citizen, and a further 40 trees belonging to another. These attacks target the heart of Palestinian livelihoods, deliberately undermining farmers’ ability to sustain their families and their connection to their ancestral lands.

Over recent months, Israeli forces and extremist settlers have intensified their campaign of terror in Nahalin, systematically targeting Palestinian citizens and their property. This escalation includes the illegal installation of settler mobile homes on stolen land, the uprooting of ancient olive trees — a lifeline for many Palestinian families — and the demolition of houses, agricultural rooms, and other essential structures.

Earlier today, Israeli occupation forces imposed yet another collective punishment on Nahalin residents by sealing off all agricultural roads in several parts of the town with dirt barriers. This draconian measure has effectively banned Palestinian farmers from accessing nearly 1,000 dunums of land planted with olives, grapevines, and almond trees — land that has been cultivated and cared for by generations of Palestinian families.

Palestinian human rights groups have condemned these acts as part of Israel’s ongoing policy of ethnic cleansing, land theft, and destruction of the Palestinian agricultural sector in the occupied West Bank. The targeting of olive groves and farmland, they say, is not incidental but a calculated tactic to erase Palestinian presence, sever ties to the land, and pave the way for further illegal settlement expansion.

Despite repeated international calls to halt settlement activity and settler violence, the Israeli occupation continues to operate with total impunity, shielded by political support from powerful allies. For the farmers of Nahalin, the destruction of their trees is more than an economic loss — it is an attack on their heritage, dignity, and very right to exist on their own land. (ILKHA)