As the olive harvest approaches, Israeli measures against Palestinian farmers in the occupied West Bank are escalating, with new military orders targeting wide areas of agricultural land, restricting farmers’ access to their fields, and coinciding with the uprooting of thousands of trees and a rise in settler attacks.

The Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission revealed that Israeli authorities issued three new military orders under security pretexts, requiring the removal of vegetation and the uprooting of olive trees on around 339 dunums of land in the Jenin and Ramallah-al-Bireh governorates. The orders set short deadlines for implementation, reaching immediate enforcement in some areas.

339 dunums under threat

The new orders are concentrated in the Jenin and Qabatiya areas, where Israeli decisions targeted about 307 dunums, most of them marked for urgent implementation. The measures include removing trees and vegetation from the targeted lands.

In Ramallah and al-Bireh governorate, a third military order targeted around 31.5 dunums in the town of Beit Rima, where Israeli machinery began uprooting trees and removing wild plants.