Israeli settlers torch Palestinian olive trees near Nablus
Israeli settlers set fire to large areas of agricultural land in the Palestinian village of Duma, south of Nablus, destroying hundreds of olive trees, according to officials cited by the WAFA news agency.
Abdullah Ziyada, head of the village council, said settlers from the illegal Yitzhar outpost ignited fields along a bypass road.
Palestinian residents, supported by civil defence crews, tried to contain the blaze. However, settlers and Israeli forces reportedly blocked access to the village’s main water source near al-Murabba checkpoint, preventing firefighters from refilling their trucks.
The burning of olive trees, central to many Palestinian livelihoods, comes amid rising settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlers establish new illegal outpost near Jericho in West Bank
Israeli settlers have established a new illegal outpost northwest of Jericho in the eastern occupied West Bank, the fifth in the same area, according to a Palestinian rights group.
Settlers erected tents, brought in excavation and levelling equipment and began fencing off the site in the Muarrajat area in recent days, the Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights said in a statement.
The organisation described the outpost as “one of the most dangerous recent developments” in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
“This isn’t just about claiming a plot of land – it’s a calculated political project disguised as a pastoral outpost,” the group said.
The outpost marks the fifth such site along the Muarrajat road, a vital corridor linking northern and southern parts of the West Bank and separating Jericho from the central region, the statement added.
“Settlers operate as unofficial arms of the Israeli government backed by weapons, public funding, and a permissive legal framework, while impoverished Bedouin communities are choked by restrictions.”
As of the end of 2024, approximately 770,000 Israeli settlers lived in the West Bank, across 180 illegal settlements and 256 outposts, including 138 classified as agricultural or pastoral, according to Palestinian reports.
Two wounded in Israeli attack on southern Lebanon
Two people, including a child, received light injuries after an Israeli drone struck southern Lebanon, according to the Health Ministry. It said in a short statement that the attack hit a house on the road leading to the Jabal al-Ahmar area in the Nabatieh district.
The Israeli military, which has been regularly hitting Lebanon despite the ceasefire with Hezbollah, has not commented on the drone attack.
