Local Palestinian authorities have reported that Israeli settlers, with the complicity of the Israeli Army, have razed at least 30 hectares of olive groves in the West Bank town of Al Mughayir, north of Ramallah, since last Thursday, the scene of a siege and repression operation while Israeli bulldozers pave a road between settlements.
Local officials told the official Palestinian news agency WAFA that the road, which runs through Rafid to Qalasoun, has destroyed thousands of olive trees and devastated the town's "eastern plain." They also reported that the Israeli army had been besieging the town until early this morning, an operation that resulted in the arrest of numerous Palestinians.
On August 21, an Israeli settler reported being attacked by Palestinians in the eastern plain of the town, prompting the army to launch an operation in the area. The head of the local council, Amin Abu Aliya, had already begun reporting the demolition of olive trees with bulldozers, the breaking and entering of homes, the theft of money and jewelry, and damage to vehicles.
settlement residents arrested a Palestinian suspected of opening fire on a group of Israeli civilians near the Adei Ad settlement. The 30-year-old Palestinian, a resident of Al Mughayir, allegedly fired at the Israelis , missing any of them, before engaging in a physical altercation during which an Israeli man was slightly injured.
On Thursday night, the head of the Israeli army's Central Command, General Avi Bluth, declared that the town would pay "a heavy price" for the violence. "Every community and every enemy must know that if they attack the residents, they will pay a heavy price; a curfew will be imposed, the area will be closed, and they will be subjected to 'adjustment operations,'" he declared, apparently referring to the uprooting of the trees, according to the Times of Israel.
Since dawn on Friday, according to the local chief, the military has detained more than seven young men, including brothers of 18-year-old Hamdan Abu Aliya, who was killed on Saturday, August 16, by Israeli army fire. The military has maintained that it acted in self-defense after local youths attacked their forces with Molotov cocktails.
