On Sunday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonialists invaded Palestinian orchards in the village of Yasuf, east of Salfit in the central part of the occupied West Bank, uprooting at least 100 olive trees.

Wael Abu Madi, chairman of the Yasuf village council, said the colonialists were preparing to expand the illegal Neveh Hamaya colony, which was built on stolen Palestinian land.

Abu Madi added that the colonialists had cleared about 6 dunams of land in the Al-Sarab area between Yasuf and Iskaka and uprooted 50- to 60-year-old olive trees to make room for the expansion of the colony and the construction of a separate bypass road.

He also pointed out that the leveled land and uprooted trees belong to locals, including brothers Abdullah, Ahmad and Hanan Mustafa Al-Abed, and Ziad and Zoheir Jamil Abdul Razzaq, stressing that this area is about 100 meters from the villagers’ houses and is planted with olive trees, which are the main source of livelihood for the villagers.

Abu Madi also expressed concern that the colonialists may continue their encroachments and clear and bulldoze more land and orchards to continue their illegal colonial activities and thus encroach on the land of the Yasuf community.

In addition, the colonists threw stones at Palestinian cars near the Israeli military roadblock on the main road of the town of Deir Ballout, west of Salfit, causing damage.

In related news, illegal Israeli paramilitary colonists raided a Palestinian home and stole nine sheep in the Khirbat Al-Himma community in the northern plains of the Jordan Valley in the occupied West Bank.

All Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in occupied East Jerusalem and the surrounding area, are illegal under international law, the Fourth Geneva Convention and various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under international law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits “individual or mass transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory.”