Israeli forces uprooted about 200 long-standing grapevines near Bethlehem on Monday and carried out raids across multiple towns and villages in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials and witnesses.
Bulldozers leveled agricultural land in the town of al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, tearing out roughly 200 mature grapevines in the Um Rukba area, Deputy Mayor Husni Issa told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In a separate incident, Israeli troops raided a Palestinian home in Hizma, northeast of occupied East Jerusalem, forced the family to evacuate and converted the house into a temporary military post, Wafa reported.
Soldiers were deployed throughout the town as part of ongoing raids.
Israeli forces also entered the villages of Kafr Malik and Barqa near Ramallah, with no immediate reports of arrests or home demolitions.
Escalating Israeli aggression across occupied West Bank
Further south, witnesses said Israeli troops raided al-Dhahiriya in the Hebron governorate, setting up a checkpoint, searching vehicles and ordering some young men out of their cars for body searches.
Israeli military activity across the occupied West Bank has surged since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, encompassing killings, home demolitions, displacement of Palestinians and continued illegal settlement expansion.
Palestinians say the escalation is designed to entrench Israeli control and pave the way for annexation of the territory, a move they warn would effectively bury the two-state solution envisioned in United Nations resolutions.
According to official Palestinian figures, more than 1,110 Palestinians have been killed, around 11,500 wounded and over 21,000 arrested in the occupied West Bank since October 2023.
