NABLUS, Wednesday, December 19, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli forces Wednesday briefly detained Palestinian journalists where were attempting to cover leveling of Palestinian lands by Israeli bulldozers in Asira al-Qibliya town, south Nablus, said a news correspondent.

Palestine TV correspondent Baker Abul-Haq told WAFA that as the TV crew was filming near lands being razed by Israeli bulldozers in al-Kharroub area, they were attacked by an armed settler who threatened to shoot at them in case they remained at the scene.

He added that after the settler attacked them, they were briefly detained by Israeli soldiers.

Earlier today, settlers from Yitzhar settlement, an illegal settlement inhabited by hardcore fanatic Jews, started razing Palestinian lands belonging to Asira al-Qibliya town to expand their settlement.

This came almost a week after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a series of collective punishment measures following a spate of deadly attacks that left four Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers dead.

Such measures include demolition of homes belonging to the families of suspected Palestinian assailants and accelerated settlement construction.

Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

K.T./K.F.