Description

HEBRON (Ma'an) -- Israeli authorities on Wednesday leveled olive groves and demolished irrigation wells and barns near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the Land Research Center said.

Israeli forces escorted a civil administration crew with bulldozers to Wadi al-Qatami in Beit Ula where they dug up olive fields, destroyed three wells used for irrigation and demolished three sheds that farmers used as storehouses, the center said in a statement.

They uprooted around 1,000 olive saplings and loaded them on a truck, the center added.

Beit Ula mayor Muhammad al-Amlah told Ma'an that Israeli forces stole the olive trees.

He said the land belonged to Suleiman Darabei, Ibrahim al-Atrash, Tawfiq al-Uweiwi, Samih al-Amlah and his brother Muhammad.

In Ramallah on Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority cabinet condemned what it termed continued Israeli aggressive acts against its people and their property in the occupied West Bank.

A statement issued after a weekly meeting noted the approval to build an archeological park on 22 dunums adjacent to the southern wall of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem.

"This is in addition to the occupation army's bulldozing of agricultural land south of Bethlehem and the uprooting by settlers of more than 400 olive trees in Hebron in addition to Israel's campaign of detentions of more than 250 citizens, including six Legislative Council Members during the Israeli aggression on Gaza," the statement said.