BETHLEHEM, Friday, March 31, 2023 (WAFA) – Extremist Israeli settlers uprooted and vandalized hundreds of newly planted olive and grape seedlings today in the village of Al-Khader, to the south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Ahmad Salah, a local Palestinian activist, told WAFA that a group of Israeli settlers from the colonial Israeli settlement of Elazar, nearby, broke into a farm near the village and vandalized nearly 250 olive saplings and 150 grape saplings which belong to Yousef Musa, a local Palestinian farmer.

The settlers also stole as many as 150 olive trees from the farm, Salah added.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli occupation authorities.

There are over 650,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law and consensus.

M.N