RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL 

Illegal Israeli settlers raided two Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and destroyed fruit-bearing trees, according to a human rights organization.

The Bedouin rights group Al-Baydar said in a statement that a group of illegal settlers raided Al-Maliha village, west of East Jerusalem, under police protection, and held several residents before releasing them later.

In another attack, Israeli settlers cut down trees in farmland in Firasin village, north of Tulkarem in the northern West Bank.

Al-Baydar said the land has been cultivated for years and constitutes a primary source of livelihood for its owners.

These attacks "reflect a systematic Israeli policy to put pressure on Palestinian farmers and threaten their economic and social stability,” it said.

According to the Palestinian government’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, illegal settlers carried out 7,154 attacks across the West Bank since October 2023, killing 33 Palestinians and displacing 33 communities. Combined settler and army actions caused the death of at least 1,072 Palestinians and injured roughly 10,700 others during the same period.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.