WEST BANK (Dispatches) – The Zionist regime is set to advance the construction of more than 3,000 settlement units in the occupied West Bank including East Al-Quds, local media reported.
The weekly schedule published by the Civil Administration’s planning committee showed that it intends to approve the construction of the new settlement units in Revava, Kedumim, Elon Moreh, Karnei Shomron and settler communities in Gush Etzion and the Al-Khalil Hills.
The document also showed that the committee intends to approve 1,300 Palestinian homes in the West Bank’s Area C.
The approval comes despite Zionist prime minister Naftali Bennett’s remarks about facing “American pressures” to stop settlement construction in the West Bank.
Earlier on Wednesday, Army Radio quoted Bennett as saying during a cabinet meeting that he was surprised by the American pressure against construction in the occupied West Bank.
Meanwhile, Zionist settlers attacked Palestinian-owned farming lands in the central part of the occupied West Bank, and uprooted more than 300 olive trees at the peak of olive harvest season.
Palestinian farmers from the village of al-Mazraa al-Garbieh, which lies north of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, were shocked on Thursday by the sight of their olive groves vandalized on lands close to the illegal Zionist settlement of Kerem Reim.
Saadeh Zaqout, the head of the village’s council, told official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA that Zionist troops and settlers installed an iron gate and placed cement blocks on the road to prevent Palestinian farmers from accessing their lands and harvesting olive trees.
Olives are a key source of income for Palestinian farmers.
The olive harvest season, which runs between October and November, is a lifeline for 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families in the West Bank.
According to United Nations data, almost half of Palestinian agricultural lands are planted with an estimated 10 million olive trees in the West Bank and besieged Gaza Strip.
Settlers time and again target the crops, setting fire to trees and poisoning plants.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said that more than 9,300 olive trees belonging to Palestinian farmers have been damaged, cut or uprooted by Zionist settlers between August 2020 and August 2021.
Rights group B’Tselem has, meanwhile, reported that 1,500 trees have been uprooted or damaged since the beginning of harvest season alone.
The olive harvest season, which runs between October and November, is a lifeline for 80,000 to 100,000 Palestinian families in the West Bank.