Activists and residents of the villages of Deir Qaddis and Nilin in the central occupied West Bank district of Ramallah prevented Israeli bulldozers from levelling agricultural land owned by Palestinians yesterday morning, according to locals.

Nilin Resistance Committee coordinator Muhammad Amirah said that the committee, along with the village’s local council and the Popular Committee to Resist Settlements and the Wall, managed to stop Israeli bulldozers which had been levelling the land for the past four days in order to expand Israel’s Route 446, which connects illegal settlements to the rest of Israel.

Amirah said that Israeli forces, accompanied by bulldozers, left the area after activists and residents staged a protest against the destruction of the agricultural lands.

Israeli forces also reportedly handed out parking tickets to Palestinian journalists in an attempt to keep them from entering the area.

According to locals, an Israeli settler also ran over a Palestinian teenager in the area at the time of the protest. The teen was reportedly in moderate condition. However, the details of the incident remained unknown.

An Israeli police spokesperson was not available for immediate comment.