February 21, 2011

NABLUS (Ma'an) -- A mob of extremist settlers stormed Palestinian farmland and uprooted olive trees near Nablus in the northern West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Residents of an illegal outpost "waged war on olive trees uprooting 270 using chainsaws and other means," in Duma and Qusra villages, said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors settlement activities in the northern West Bank.

Of the trees uprooted, 100 belonged to Abdul-Razzaq Dawabsha, 100 to Muhammad and Shahada Dawabsha and 70 to Sabir Dawabsha, Daghlas said.

On Tuesday, settlers shot a Palestinian teenager in his abdomen as he worked on his land near Jalud village, west of Qusra, Daglas said.

Wa'el Mahmud Ayed, 17, was transferred to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.

On Monday, the outgoing director of UNRWA operations Barbara Shenstone planted olive tree saplings on land slated for confiscation in Burin, south of Nablus.

Shenstone said planting olive trees was a way to protect Palestinian lands from confiscation by Israeli settlers.