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12 Oct, 2014

Fanatic Jewish Settlers Assault Palestinian Olive Harvesters

SALFIT, October 11, 2014 – (WAFA) – Israeli settlers assaulted Saturday Palestinian olive harvesters in Yasuf to the northeast of Salfit, said local witnesses.

Seven settlers descended from the illegal Israeli settlement of Tafuh, built on land seized from the villagers, and assaulted several Palestinian farmers while they were harvesting their olive trees in Khallet al-‘Ayn area.

Settlers brutally assaulted Hana’ Fathi ‘Atyani, 30, inflicting injuries in her leg and vandalized her husband’s vehicle.

An armed settler shot three bullets in the air in order to intimidate the Palestinian olive harvesters.

This attack came less than a week after settlers destroyed about 100 olive trees in Yasuf as the Palestinian olive harvesting season gets underway this month.

Settlers have been systematically assaulting Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank. They often set fire to olive trees or chop them down and release wild pigs in Palestinian-owned agricultural lands, causing extensive destruction to Palestinian crops. Such assaults are ignored by Israeli forces, who frequently protect settlers or stand by watching.

Such assaults are meant to intimidate Palestinian farmers and dispossess them in order to expand illegal Jewish-only settlements.

For more information about Yasuf, click on Yasuf Village Profile, a report that was compiled by the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem.