Palestinian village says IDF uprooted 300 of its olive trees, including ones in Area B

The IDF has uprooted hundreds of Palestinian olive trees in the northern West Bank in an area that the local village council says exceeds the boundaries set by a military order that justified the move for “security measures.”

The uprootings extended to Area B of the West Bank, which is supposed to be under the Palestinian Authority’s administrative control, the Qaryut village council tells Haaretz. Area B is under IDF security control.

The military order in question was signed by Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth and directing the uprooting of trees from roughly 20 acres of Qaryut’s land. But the council says soldiers ended up uprooting trees from 37 acres of land, even though only three of those acres are state land and the remainder belongs to private Palestinian landowners.

The IDF has previously said that it uproots trees and clears vegetation in the West Bank for operational purposes, mainly to increase visibility in forested areas that it deems can be exploited for potential attacks, and has denied that the moves are intended as collective punishment.