General

Settlers assault a citizen and cut down grape trees south of Bethlehem

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Settlers assaulted a citizen from the village of Jourat al-Sham’a, south of Bethlehem, on Monday, and cut down grape trees from his land.

Citizen Tariq Al-Fawaghra (60 years old), who is the head of the Agricultural Cooperative Association for the Southern Countryside Villages in the Bethlehem Governorate, reported that settlers attacked him while he was with his two sons on his land in the ‘Beit Suwayr’ area adjacent to the ‘Alon Shevut’ settlement in the middle of the ‘Gush Etzion’ settlement bloc. They assaulted him, before cutting down a number of grape trees and destroying some of their fruit.

Al-Fawaghra added that the settlers threatened him that if he returned to his 40-dunam land, they would attack him again and burn his agricultural tractor, and forced him and his two sons to leave the land.

Source: Maan News Agency