Salfit - Saba:
On Saturday morning, armed settlers assaulted olive pickers west of Salfit, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
Youssef Al-Deek, a farmer in the area, was quoted by Paltoday News Agency as saying: ‘Settlers from the pastoral settlement outpost built on citizens' lands in Kafr al-Deek assaulted olive pickers in the “Khallet al-Haramiya” area, west of the town, by shouting, cursing and threatening them.’
Farmer Al-Deek explained that the settlers tried to force them to leave their lands and prevent them from picking olive fruits.
He pointed out that during the past week, the settlers stole 30 bags of olives and agricultural equipment, in addition to grazing their livestock among the trees, and provoking the farmers, in an attempt to prevent citizens from accessing their lands and taking care of them.
Agricultural lands in Salfit governorate are subjected to daily attacks by settlers and enemy forces, which escalated during the olive season in an attempt to force citizens to abandon them in favour of settlements.
At this time of the year, Palestinian lands during the annual olive harvest season are subjected to repeated attacks by settlers and the occupation army, and farmers constantly face obstacles and arbitrary practices that prevent them from reaching their lands, which leads to heavy material losses and increases their daily suffering under the occupation.
It is worth mentioning that, according to statistics, ‘farmers were unable to reach 80,000 dunums of land planted with olives due to settler terrorism under the protection of the occupation army, which leads to the loss of about 15 per cent of this year's crop.’
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