The uptrend in Israeli settler violence against Palestinian civilians and property in the occupied West Bank recorded in recent years has continued since the beginning of 2019, with a weekly average of seven attacks resulting in injuries or property damage, compared with an average of five in 2018 and three in 2017, according to a United Nations agency.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its bi-weekly report on protection of civilians in the occupied Palestinian territory covering the first two weeks of February that vandalism of Palestinian property and uprooting of trees were carried out by both Israeli settlers and authority.

Around 425 trees and 14 vehicles were vandalized, and one Palestinian was injured, in attacks by Israeli settlers during the recording period, said OCHA.

Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured a 20-year-old Palestinian man near the village of Jibiya in the Ramallah area.

A total of 425 Palestinian-owned trees were vandalized by Israeli settlers in three separate incidents in At Tuwani and Sa’ir, both in the Hebron district in the south of the West Bank, and Jalud near Nablus in the north of the West Bank.

Additionally, in another four separate incidents, Israeli settlers punctured the tires of 14 Palestinian vehicles and sprayed offensive graffiti in al-Lubban al-Sharqiya and Huwwara villages, south of Nablus, and in al Khalayleh, near Jerusalem, and tried to set fire to a mosque in Deir Dibwan village near Ramallah.

Israeli army uprooting of trees and destruction of property occurred mainly in the northern Jordan Valley where approximately 500 trees were uprooted, four dunums of cultivated land levelled and an irrigation network damaged on February 6 in Bardala village that affected the livelihood of seven families on the grounds that the area is ‘state land’ and located in what was classified by the 1993 Oslo Accords as Area C, which makes over 60% of the area of the West Bank that remains under full Israeli military rule and where Palestinians are not allowed to build on or develop.

In a similar incident, during the previous reporting period, on 22 January, the Israeli military authorities uprooted 1,250 Palestinian-owned trees in Safa village near Hebron located next to the illegal Bat Ayin Jewish settlement.

OCHA also said that during the reporting period, 15 Palestinian structures were demolished or seized in East Jerusalem and Area C on the grounds of a lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 39 Palestinians and affecting the livelihoods of some 70 others.

Seven of the 10 structures targeted in East Jerusalem, all residential, were demolished by their owners following the receipt of final demolition orders, reportedly to avoid incurring additional fines. The other five structures were located in Area C. Overall, 48 structures have been demolished or seized by Israel in the West Bank since the start of 2019.

In addition, and on 6 February, Israeli forces displaced, for up to 14 hours, some 400 Palestinians in the northern Jordan Valley during Israeli military training exercises. This disrupted the livelihoods and access to services of two herding communities located in an area designated as a “firing zone”: Khirbet al-Ras al-Ahmar and Hammamat al-Maleh. Communities located in such zones are affected by a coercive environment placing their residents at risk of forcible transfer, said the UN humanitarian agency.