Much of the vegetation removed consisted of olive trees, vital to the West Bank’s economy and culture. These groves have long been hotspots for conflict between Palestinian farmers and Israeli settlers.
On Sunday, Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in Al Mughayyir, a West Bank village, in the presence of Israeli military forces, as witnessed by AFP journalists.
Abdelatif Mohammed Abu Aliya, a local farmer from the village near Ramallah, reported losing olive trees over 70 years old across roughly one hectare of land.
“They were completely uprooted and flattened under false claims,” he stated, noting that he and other villagers have started to replant the trees.
AFP photographers documented overturned soil, olive trees strewn across the ground, and several bulldozers working on the hills around the village.
One bulldozer carried an Israeli flag, with military vehicles parked nearby.
“The aim is to control and displace people. This is just the beginning — it will spread throughout the West Bank,” remarked Ghassan Abu Aliya, head of a local agricultural association.
Residents indicated the bulldozing began on Thursday. A Palestinian NGO reported 14 arrests in the village over the past three days.
When questioned, the Israeli army informed AFP they were investigating the incident.
‘Heavy Cost’
The army released a statement on Friday, reporting the arrest of a man from Al Mughayyir, accusing him of being “responsible for a nearby terrorist attack.”
On August 16, the Palestinian Authority reported an 18-year-old man was shot and killed by the Israeli army in the same village.
The army claimed their forces responded to stone-throwing by “terrorists” but did not directly connect this to the young man’s death.
In a video widely circulated in Israeli media on Friday, a senior military commander referenced the al-Mughayyir attack, pledging to make “every village and every enemy… pay a heavy cost” for assaults on Israelis.
Avi Bluth, the top military commander in the West Bank, stated in the video that villages of Palestinian attackers could face curfews, sieges, and “terrain shaping actions” as deterrents.
Violence in the West Bank has intensified since the Gaza war began after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel.
Since then, at least 971 Palestinians — including militants and civilians — have died due to Israeli military or settler actions in the West Bank, according to AFP and Palestinian Authority data.
During the same timeframe, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, as per official Israeli sources.
The West Bank, under Israeli occupation since 1967, hosts about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israelis in settlements deemed illegal under international law.
