Jenin / PNN /

Israeli occupation forces bulldozed agricultural lands belonging to residents of Khirbet Mas’oud, southwest of Jenin, on Monday to expand a pastoral settlement outpost.

The head of the village council in Zibda, Saleh Amarna, explained that Israeli bulldozers began clearing lands and uprooting olive trees owned by residents of Zibda and Khirbet Mas’oud. The occupation army had marked these olive groves with orange paint. The landowners hold official ownership deeds and title documents.

Amarna added that the bulldozing aims to serve and enlarge the pastoral settlement outpost established in 2019 on the hilltop of Khirbet Mas’oud. He noted that settlers frequently harass farmers, graze their livestock on cultivated lands, and engage in acts of vandalism.

Khirbet Mas’oud falls under the jurisdiction of the Zibda village council and consists of three residential clusters: Iraq al-Dawwar, Khirbet Faris, and Khirbet al-Qusur, with an estimated population of around 350 people.

The occupation bulldozes lands adjacent to the settlement outpost on the hill, confiscating dozens of dunams of agricultural land in an area stretching from Qafin to the mountains of Ya’bad south of Jenin.