Palestinians from two West Bank towns reported that dozens of olive trees in their groves were cut down Wednesday overnight. In the area of the southern Hebron Hills, near the village of Susya, some 160 trees were cut down. Meanwhile, Palestinians reported that some 100 trees were damaged in the town of Turmus Ayya in the central West Bank.
The incident comes after residents of the West Bank village of Deir Qadis reported on Wednesday that hateful graffiti had been sprayed by settlers who entered the village during the night. The slogans specifically targeted Mahmoud Qatusa, a Palestinian who was accused of raping an Israeli seven-year-old girl in the West Bank and was then released.
“I’m not afraid they will reach me, I’m an innocent man, I don’t know who’s against me and don’t know who did it, but we must work hard on this and know who did it, if settlers came or others,” Qatusa said.
Earlier this week, Palestinian cars were vandalized and sprayed with threatening Hebrew-language slogans in the West Bank town of Awarta, near Nabuls, in a suspected hate crime.
— source jfjfp.com | Jul 11, 2019