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by IMEMC News

Israeli soldiers invaded, on Tuesday morning, the village of Shoufa, south of the northern West Bank city of Tulkarem, and uprooted many olive trees in Khallet Hammoud area, before loading the trees in their trucks and drove to an unknown destination.

Resident Abdullah Hamed, the owner of the uprooted trees, told the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA) that the soldiers surrounded the entire area, before demolishing stonewalls and uprooted many trees.

Hamed added that the soldiers uprooted the trees from their roots, and loaded them into trucks before taking them to an unknown destination, likely to replant them in illegal Israeli colonies.

The trees were planted 20-30 years ago; the soldiers uprooted around 10 Dunams of the entire orchard of 200.

Hamed said the soldiers prevented him and many activists from entering the orchards, and confiscated the ID cards of many Palestinians.

The Israeli army claims the uprooted orchard, officially and legally owned by Hamed, is in what it called “State Land” in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian voiced an appeal to international human rights and legal groups to intervene and stopped the Israeli destruction and theft of Palestinian lands, and property, especially since the area in question is subject to frequent Israeli attacks in an attempt to expand the illegal colony of Avnei Hefetz, built in privately-owned Palestinian lands.

In addition, several Israeli military vehicles, and bulldozers, invaded on Tuesday morning the town of Sa’ir, northeast of Hebron, in the southern part of the occupied West Bank, and demolished eight Palestinian homes.

Also on Tuesday morning, dozens of soldiers invaded the al-Fawwar refugee camp, south of the southern West Bank city of Hebron, broke into and searched several homes, and injured seven Palestinians during ensuing clashes, and kidnapped one.

Furthermore, an infant suffered severe effects of teargas inhalation, after Israeli soldiers invaded Kufur Qaddoum, east of the northern West Bank city of Qalqilia, and kidnapped one Palestinian.

In the northern West Bank district of Jenin, the soldiers invaded the Jenin refugee camp and Ya’bad town, searched homes and kidnapped four Palestinians.

In related news, the soldiers invaded Hijja village, east of Qalqilia, and searched the family home of Bashar Masalha, who was killed by the army of March 8, 2016.
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TULKAREM (Ma’an) -- Israeli bulldozers uprooted more than 50 olive trees on Tuesday morning in the Palestinian village of Shufa in the northern occupied West Bank district of Tulkarem, Palestinian farmers told Ma’an, two weeks before a court hearing was scheduled to be held to appeal the Israeli-ordered confiscation of the land.

One of the farmers, Abed Hamid, said he received a phone call from a neighbor notifying him that Israeli forces brought bulldozers to his olive tree orchard and started to uproot the trees, which were planted between 15 and 20 years ago.

After Hamid rushed to his land, he said he witnessed Israeli forces “stealing” the majority of his trees, which were left intact.

The bulldozers also tore down dry-stone walls in the field.

Two months ago, Hamid said, Israeli authorities notified him that 40 dunums (10 acres) of his land were slated for confiscation. His lawyer, a Palestinian living in Israel, told Hamid a court hearing had been arranged, which was expected to be held in the coming two weeks. However, Israeli forces apparently enforced the land confiscation as Hamid was waiting to make his appeal.

Last week, some 500 olive trees were bulldozed by Israeli settlers under armed military escort in the northern West Bank district of Salfit, without prior notice, under the pretext that they were located on state lands confiscated by Israel.

Israel has recently stepped up land confiscation in the occupied West Bank, with settlement watchdog Peace Now warning in March that Israel had not confiscated such large swathes of land for the purpose of settlement expansion since the pre-Oslo period in the 1980s.