TULKARM, November 5, 2024 (WAFA) – Israeli colonists attacked Palestinian farmers on Thursday morning while they were picking olives in their lands in the village of Shofa, southeast of Tulkarm.

Farmer Tahseen Hamed told WAFA correspondent that a group of colonists accompanied by police dogs came from the Avnei Hefetz colony, built on the town's lands, and attacked them while they were picking olives, seized the olives, expelled them from their lands, and threatened them not to return at gunpoint.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation soldiers expelled a number of farmers and their families from the town of Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarm, while they were on their lands to pick olives in Ard al-Sawame area, west of the Anab colony.

Farmer Mohammad Abdullah Rajab told WAFA that the occupation soldiers stormed the area, forced them to leave their lands, prevented them from picking olives, and assaulted farmer Ahmad Muhannad Fuqaha, leaving with him bruises. He was taken to the town’s clinic.

He added that they were surprised to find more than 100 old and perennial olive trees that had been cut down, and that belonged to him and to several local farmers.

Rajab explained that they went to their lands in the aforementioned area after a year of not being able to reach them, to pick olives due to the Israeli measures in the area, and its establishment of a military tower near it, but the occupation forces attacked them today and expelled them from their lands.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the occupation forces and settlers have carried out more than 253 attacks since the beginning of the olive harvest season, including 184 attacks in the northern West Bank, and 113 concentrated in the Nablus Governorate.

K.T