RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA

Illegal Israeli settlers burned Palestinian agricultural lands in the West Bank on Monday as the army demolished Palestinian structures in the occupied territory.

“Illegal settlers set fire to crops in Ein Samiya town, east of Ramallah city, destroying tens of dunams (1 dunam = 1,000 square meters) of farmland,” Palestinian activist Bashar al-Qaryouti told Anadolu.

He said settlers also attacked passing Palestinian cars with stones.

Illegal settlers also set ablaze olive groves in the villages of Salem and Beit Dajan near Nablus city, according to Muhammad Abu Thabit, a local activist.

He said vast areas of farmland were destroyed in the arson attacks, including ancient olive trees.

Meanwhile, Israeli military bulldozers demolished a two-story home and sheep farm for the alleged lack of a building permit in Khalil al-Louz area, east of Bethlehem city in the southern West Bank.

Hasan Brijieh, a representative of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission in Bethlehem, condemned the home demolition as "an Israeli pressure tactic to force Palestinians to leave their land."

The commission reported 73 Israeli demolition operations in April alone, including 96 inhibited homes and 34 agricultural structures.

Separately, Muayyad Shaaban, the head of the Palestinian Authority’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, said in a statement that the Israeli occupation has begun constructing a settlement road west of Ramallah.

“The road under construction is based on a military order issued by the occupation state in 1979, through which it seized 2,178 dunums (1 dunum = 1,000 square meters) of Palestinian-owned land,” he said.

“The military order aims to create geographic continuity between the Ofer military camp and the Giv’at Ze’ev settlement, forming a connection point with Route 443, a colonial road reserved exclusively for settlers, ultimately linking to the 1948 territories (Israel),” Shaaban added.

He noted that while the road would reduce travel time for illegal settlers, it would sever the Palestinian towns of Kafr Ni’ma and Bil’in from the towns of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, Beit Ur al-Tahta, and Safa – all Palestinian communities.

According to the statement, since 1967, Israel has established 710 illegal settlements and military bases — an average of one settlement every 8 square kilometers in the West Bank.

It also said that Israel has set up 1,000 military checkpoints throughout the West Bank, fragmenting the geographical continuity of Palestinian cities and towns, turning them into isolated enclaves.

Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 970 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The International Court of Justice declared last July that Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.