SALFIT, August 10, 2016 (WAFA) – Israeli forces on Wednesday uprooted some 250 olive saplings near the village of Sekaka, east of Salfit town in the West Bank, according to local sources.

WAFA correspondent said an Israeli army force accompanied by bulldozers uprooted the 250 olive saplings, claiming they were planted on a state-owned land.

Abdul-Qader Hekmeh, head of Sekaka village council, told WAFA that the owners of the land where the trees were uprooted harried up to the scene in an attempt to stop the uprooting, but they failed to do so as the soldiers scuffled with them.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, “Over the years, Israel has used a number of legal and bureaucratic procedures in order to appropriate West Bank lands, with the primary objective of establishing settlements and providing land reserves for them.”

“Using primarily these five methods: seizure for military purposes; declaration of state lands; seizure of absentee property; confiscation for public needs; and initial registration, Israel has managed to take over about 50% of the lands in the West Bank, barring the local Palestinian public from using them.”

M.N