Qalqilya: Israeli forces continued razing agricultural lands surrounding the eastern entrance to the city of Qalqilya.
According to Palestine News and Information Agency - WAFA, Ahmed Eid, Director of the Qalqilya Agriculture Directorate, stated that the land-leveling operations began about a month and a half ago. These operations have impacted several sites extending to the east, south, and west of the military camp located at the city's eastern entrance.
Eid highlighted that the land-leveling is part of a plan to secure and protect the camp's perimeter, which has come at the cost of Palestinian-owned land, extending approximately 50 meters in all directions. The operations have affected at least six dunams of cultivated land, leading to the uprooting and destruction of 120 guava trees, 100 olive trees, 39 mango trees, and 30 avocado trees. Furthermore, a 6-inch main water pipeline supplying the cultivated land was destroyed, and the surrounding fence was damaged.
Eid also noted that the affected lands belong to several farmers, predominantly from the Khalif family, who are residents of the towns of Azzun and Nabi Elias, east of Qalqilya. The destruction has resulted in significant losses for these farmers and posed a threat to their livelihoods, amid ongoing attacks by Israeli forces on agricultural lands in the governorate.
