HEBRON, Monday, March 25, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers chopped down Palestinian trees in the southern West Bank area of al-Bweira, east of Hebron.

Khalifa Da‘na, a local landowner, told WAFA that settlers from the illegal Israeli settlements of Kiryat Arba and Kharsina took chance of the rainy weather to uproot his forest and almond trees.

Israeli settlers and forces have repeatedly attacked al-Bweira area, which is considered one of Hebron’s richest areas in plants and trees.

The city of Hebron, which houses the Ibrahimi Mosque, is home to roughly 160,000 Palestinian Muslims and about 800 notoriously aggressive Israeli settlers who live in compounds heavily guarded by Israeli troops.

Palestinians of the city face a large Israeli military presence on a daily basis with at least 32 permanent and partial checkpoints set up at the entrances of many streets.

Since the 1994 Ibrahimi Mosque massacre that claimed the lives of 29 Palestinians, Palestinians have not been allowed to access the main al-Shuhada Street and have had their homes and shops on the street welded shut. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers move freely on the street, drive cars and carry machine guns.

Israel has expelled the only international monitors protecting Hebron’s Palestinians from 800 heavily guarded settlers, one of whom committed the 1994 massacre that triggered their deployment.

K.T./ K.F.