RAMALLAH, Friday, October 16, 2020 (WAFA) – At least three Palestinians were injured today when Israeli occupation forces attacked farmers and volunteering activists joining them in harvesting olives in the village of Burqa, to the east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Minister Walid Asssaf, Chairman of the Apartheid Wall and Colonization Resistance Commission, told WAFA that Israeli soldiers fired rubber-coated rounds, teargas canisters and stun grenades at the farmers and activists to disperse them, injuring three of them.

Many others also sustained suffocation from teargas inhalation.

The event was called for by the Commission in response to Israel's denial of access of Palestinian farmers to their olive-planted farms in the area during the last few days, as well as in response to a series of recent attacks by Israeli settlers on the said area during the last week.

Assaf confirmed that more similar events will be organized in the coming days in an effort to reinforce the resilience of Palestinian farmers in the face of the Israeli attempts to expropriate more Palestinian land for the benefit of the colonial settlement project.

Attacks by Israeli forces and settlers on Palestinian farmers always witness an increase during the annual olive harvest season.

M.N