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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- Settlers uprooted over 60 olive trees in the central West Bank on Thursday, a Palestinian official said.

Settlers from the Adei Ad outpost south of Nablus uprooted the trees on land belonging to Hajj Mahmoud al-Araj in the village of Turmusaya.

Attacks on olive trees are a key way that Palestinians are forced out of their homes and their lands confiscated for settlement construction, as the loss of a year's crop can signal destitution for many.

The olive industry supports the livelihoods of roughly 80,000 families in the occupied West Bank.

Since 1967, approximately 800,000 olive trees have been uprooted in the occupied West Bank, according to a joint report by the Palestinian Authority and the Applied Research Institute Jerusalem.