Farmers injured, crops destroyed as settlers intensify attacks to seize land.

Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank faced a surge of violent attacks by Israeli settlers on Saturday, as extremist groups intensified their assaults on farmers, homes, and agricultural lands in a deliberate campaign to displace Palestinians and expand illegal settlements. The attacks, part of a broader pattern of settler violence backed by Israeli authorities, have left residents injured, traumatized, and facing further loss of their ancestral lands.

In Bethlehem’s Wadi Rahal village, a mob of armed Jewish settlers viciously attacked Palestinian farmers working on their agricultural land in the Khilat an-Nahla area. Naim al-Radi, a local farmer, reported that three of his fellow farmers sustained injuries during the assault, which appeared aimed at intimidating Palestinians and forcing them off their land. “This is our home, our livelihood,” al-Radi said. “These settlers want to erase us from our own fields.”

In the northern Jordan Valley, the small hamlet of Khirbet Samra was terrorized when a group of armed settlers stormed the area, menacingly approaching Palestinian tents. The incursion sparked widespread fear, particularly among women and children, who were left shaken by the settlers’ aggressive presence. Local residents described the incident as part of an ongoing effort to drive them from their homes through intimidation and violence.

Meanwhile, in Shallal al-Auja village near Jericho, settlers escalated their provocations by grazing livestock near Palestinian homes, deliberately damaging crops and property. Such actions, residents say, are a calculated tactic to destroy their agricultural livelihoods and pressure them to abandon their villages.

In Jenin, the destruction took a more systematic form as settlers deployed bulldozers to uproot olive trees in a grove owned by a Palestinian farmer in Masoud village. The attack is seen as a precursor to constructing a road to a settler herding outpost illegally established in 2019. This follows a similar assault last week, when Israeli bulldozers ravaged olive groves belonging to Palestinians in the nearby villages of Zibda and Masoud, further threatening the region’s agricultural heritage.

Palestinian activists and community leaders condemned the attacks as part of Israel’s broader strategy to annex West Bank land and displace its indigenous population. “These are not isolated incidents but a coordinated effort to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their homes,” said a spokesperson for a local resistance group. “The settlers act with impunity, protected by the Israeli military, while our people face daily terror.”

The Palestinian Authority has called on the international community to intervene, accusing Israel of enabling settler violence to entrench its occupation. According to recent data from Palestinian human rights groups, settler attacks have surged in 2025, with over 1,200 incidents reported this year alone, including physical assaults, property destruction, and land theft. The United Nations has repeatedly criticized Israel’s settlement expansion as a violation of international law, yet no significant measures have been taken to curb the violence.

On social media platform X, Palestinian voices amplified their outrage, with users sharing images of uprooted olive trees and injured farmers. One post read, “The world watches as settlers destroy our lives, our land, our future. Where is the justice?” Others called for global solidarity, urging boycotts and sanctions against Israel’s settlement enterprise.

As Palestinian communities brace for further attacks, residents remain steadfast in their resolve to protect their land and heritage. “These olive trees are our history, our identity,” said a farmer from Masoud. “No bulldozer, no settler, no occupation can take that from us.”

The international community’s silence, however, continues to embolden settler violence, leaving Palestinians to face an escalating campaign of dispossession alone. Calls are growing for urgent action to hold Israel accountable and protect the rights of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. (ILKHA)