Israeli occupiers burn wheat field, attack Palestinian farmers in occupied West Bank

Israeli occupiers burned a wheat field, and attacked Palestinian farmers in the West Bank on Tuesday, in the latest wave of assaults in the occupied territories, witnesses said.

Witnesses told Anadolu that occupiers set fire to parts of a wheat field in the village of al-Sawiya in Nablus in the northern West Bank.

Residents and civil defense crews managed to bring the fire under control and prevent it from spreading to wider areas of farmland, they added.

According to witnesses, a group of Israeli occupiers also attacked farmers in the eastern area of the town of Idhna in Hebron as they were transporting their wheat harvest.

The witnesses said an armed occupier stopped a Palestinian vehicle loaded with wheat and tried to seize it, sparking tensions in the area. No injuries were reported.

On Monday, Israeli occupiers burned 500 dunams of farmland in the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, under army protection.

Occupiers have targeted agricultural seasons in the West Bank, repeatedly attacking Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest, assaulting them and seizing their livelihoods. The same pattern is now recurring with the start of the wheat season.

The attacks come amid escalating occupier violence in the West Bank. The Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, documented about 1,637 occupier attacks in April.

The violence has coincided with a continued Israeli military escalation in the West Bank, including killings, arrests and raids on cities and towns involving home searches and property destruction, since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.

Since then, attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have killed 1,162 Palestinians, injured about 12,245 others and led to nearly 23,000 arrests, according to official figures.

*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul