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BETHLEHEM (Ma’an) – Israeli forces leveled private Palestinian agricultural land in a village west of Bethlehem on Thursday, a non-profit organization which defends Palestinian land rights said.

Bulldozers protected by Israeli military vehicles leveled 35 dunams (4 acres) of land belonging to Palestinian farmer Sabri Rashad Manasra from Wadi Fukin, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, a Palestinian organization dedicated to supporting Palestinian farmers, said.

The local council of Wadi Fukin explained that Manasra's land is located between the illegal Israeli settlements of Beitar Illit and Tzur Hadassah, which together house over 50,000 Jewish residents.

Council head Ahmad Sukkar told local news agency Wafa that Israeli authorities are creating an industrial and commercial zone in the area on private lands confiscated from Wadi Fukin and the nearby village of Husan.

A spokesperson for the Israeli Coordination for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed that the land was leveled, denying that it was to create an industrial and commercial zone but rather because there had been a "violation of state lands."

Wadi Fukin's 1,300 residents learned in August 2014 that over 1,000 acres private land belonging to the village and neighboring Jaba was declared state land by Israel's Civil Administration.

Surrounded by Jewish-only settlements on three sides, several residents of the small town received eviction notices from Israeli authorities in September 2014 in what an Israeli settlement watchdogs termed one of the largest expropriation of Palestinian land in nearly 30 years.