Jewish settlers cut down productive trees, burn sheep in Nablus villages

Jewish settlers cut down productive trees, burn sheep in Nablus villages

NABLUS, A gang of Jewish settlers were spotted late Friday night flocking into the village of Tel, south of the West Bank city of Nablus and cutting down fruit trees and vegetable plants on the farms there.

Jewish settlement expert Ghassan Douglas said the settlers who vandalized the Tel village originated from the Hafat Gilad settlement, also nicknamed the “den for Jewish extremists”.

The incident was one of a series of attacks by Jewish settlers against Palestinian villages surrounding settlements, Douglas said.

In a separate incident, other Jewish settlers set fire to 17 sheep owned by a Palestinian farmer from the Nablus village of Aqraba while he was tending his sheep outside of the town, Aqraba mayor Jawdat Bani Jabir reported.

The settlers approached the victim armed and riding in a white car and asked him to approach. Scared, he declined and fled the scene.

The assailants then proceeded to gather the sheep in an area containing dry grass and set the entire area ablaze, killing 12 sheep, five critically injured and two others with second degree burns. The loss was estimated at 8,500 Jordanian dinars.

The area is engulfed by three Jewish settlements. Jewish settlers reportedly killed two Palestinian-owned sheep in another Nablus village a few days back.