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by IMEMC News & Agencies

Israeli forces, on Thursday, closed agricultural roads in Idhna and confiscated water pipes from al-Baq‘a, located respectively to the west and east of Hebron, according to municipal sources and witnesses.

WAFA Palestinian News & Info Agency has reported that several agricultural roads were closed in al-Bas springs, al-Khirbi al-Bayda, Khirbet al-Ras, and Khalet Mhareb Road, opposite to the section of the Segregation and Annexation Wall to the west of Idhna.

The closure of these roads, which are the linking point between Idhna and the Palestinian agricultural lands in these areas, has resulted in the loss of access to land owned by Palestinian farmers in the region.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers confiscated a number of water pipes from Palestinian agricultural lands in Al-Baq‘a, to the east of the city.

Troops, accompanied by officers from the so-called Israeli Civil Administration and Israeli water company ‘Mekorot’, raided the area and confiscated pipes used by a local Palestinian farmer to irrigate turnip seeds in his 4-dunam-sized land.

According to WAFA, Israeli forces frequently target Palestinian farmers in this area, taking their irrigation systems and serving them with orders which prohibit them from farming.

Settlers have also frequently sabotaged land and crops in the area, in addition to burning down water tanks and pipes. These illegitimate practices, by Israelis, are meant to dispossess, disenfranchise and displace Palestinians from the area, in order to further expand the nearby illegal settlements of Kiryat Arba and Kharsina.

In related Thursday news, WAFA further reports that Israeli forces destroyed the contents of a Palestinian home in an-Nassariya, to the east of Nablus, according to a local witness.

Israeli troops stormed the area, upon which they they broke into several homes without warning and occupied the rooftops, said one Muhammad Abu Rwis, adding that the soldiers ransacked his own home and destroyed the contents.

Head of An-Nassariya Local Council, Yaser Nayef, stated that large Israeli reinforcements were deployed in the village, as well as in the villages of ‘Ein Shibli, al-Aqrabaniya and al-Nawaji, nearby.