DaysofPal – Israeli settlers have set up new encampments and uprooted around 1,500 olive saplings in the Palestinian village of al-Maniya, southeast of Bethlehem, intensifying ongoing land seizures in the occupied West Bank.
According to Zayed Kawazba, head of al-Maniya’s village council, a group of settlers stormed the al-Qarn area in the center of the village, erected four tents, and destroyed olive trees belonging to families from the al-Motawer and Jabarin clans. He told Wafa News Agency that the attack was carried out under the watch and protection of the Israeli military.
The incident is part of a broader surge in settler expansion and violence across the West Bank. Since the beginning of 2025, settlers have established 23 unauthorized outposts, all with full backing from Israeli forces.
Over the same period, they have carried out more than 2,150 attacks, resulting in the deaths of four Palestinians, according to local monitoring groups.
Olive trees—long a symbol of Palestinian resilience and livelihood—have been repeatedly targeted in settler assaults. The latest uprooting in al-Maniya not only threatens the agricultural base of the village but deepens fears of systematic displacement.
Local residents say such acts are designed to seize land, erase Palestinian presence, and pave the way for permanent settlement expansion—an effort many view as part of a broader strategy of annexation and demographic control.
Rights groups have condemned the Israeli government’s continued support for settlement outposts, warning that these actions violate international law and fuel rising tensions across the West Bank.
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