BETHLEHEM, March 30, 2011 (WAFA) - Israeli bulldozers razed large areas of agricultural lands Wednesday in al-Khader village, south of Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Awad Abu Sawi, coordinator of the popular resistance committees against the Wall and settlements in Bethlehem’s Agricultural Directorate,  told WAFA that settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, yesterday razed more than 13 dunums (1 dunum = 1000 square meters) owned by Palestinian local farmers and falling within the Efrat settlement.

One of the landowners said the soldiers took the farmers’ IDs and demanded they leave their lands,  leaving the settlers to continue vandalizing the groves and orchards and seize the land.

Farmers said that parts of their lands had been confiscated and fenced within the illegal Efrat settlement, but that they continued to cultivate the land despite the settlers’ ongoing provocation.

M.N./F.J.