BETHLEHEM, Sunday, April 9, 2023 (WAFA) – Extremist Israeli settlers uprooted and vandalized hundreds of newly planted grape seedlings today in the area of Khallet al-Ballout, to the south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

Salah Shahin, a local Palestinian resident, told WAFA that a group of Israeli settlers broke into a farm in the area and vandalized nearly 180 grape saplings which belong to local Palestinian residents.

The settlers also vandalized other belongings in the farm, he added.

Last night, groups of rampaging Israeli settlers from the colonial settlement bloc of Gush Etzion attacked inhabited Palestinian homes in the area and pelted them with stones.

Meantime in Jenin, north of the West Bank, busloads of Israeli settlers broke into the site of the abandoned Israeli settlement of Sanur, located along the Nablus-Jenin road, where settlers performed rituals under heavy army protection.

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