Israeli forces uprooted hundreds of cactus seedlings belonging to a Palestinian resident in the Bardala village in the northern occupied West Bank, on Tuesday afternoon.
A Palestinian official in charge of Jordan Valley’s Jewish settlements file at the Palestinian Authority (PA), Mutaz Bisharat, said that Israeli forces uprooted 200 five-month-old cactus seedlings.
Soldiers Destroy Hundreds of Cactus Seedlings in Northern Jordan Valley https://t.co/w75pZw449s pic.twitter.com/6TGt2WX3Ww
— IMEMC News (@imemcnews) December 19, 2018
Bisharat added that the seedlings belong to local resident Faris Sawafta in Bardala in the Jordan Valley.
Forming a third of the occupied West Bank and with 88 percent of its land classified as Area C, the Jordan Valley has long been a strategic area of land unlikely to return to Palestinians following Israel’s occupation in 1967.
IOF cuts down 200 cactus seedlings in Jordan Valley https://t.co/oQ6TeXK66S
— alhorria (@AAlhorria) December 19, 2018
The unpredictability of the training drills leaves rural Palestinian communities in the Jordan Valley anxious about when they will be displaced, and whether the next time will be permanent.
Palestinian residents of the Jordan Valley regularly face evacuations and interruption due to Israeli military exercises on or near their land. The Jordan Valley district of Tubas is one of the West Bank’s most important agricultural centers.
(Ma’an, PC, Social Media)
