Israel announced that its forces had arrested Palestinian policemen and confiscated their weapons in the West Bank. The occupation also prevented owners of olive fields in the West Bank from entering their lands to reap fruits, and settlers attacked them.
The official Israeli Broadcasting Corporation said on Wednesday evening that an Israeli army force was carrying out operational activities near Ramallah in Area (C) when it spotted armed elements of the Palestinian police, explaining that the rules followed prohibit the presence of armed Palestinian police in the area.
She added that the Israeli army arrested Palestinian policemen and confiscated their weapons, before releasing them later, but without returning the confiscated weapons.
According to the 1995 "Oslo II agreement," Area C is subject to Israeli security and administrative control, and it represents 61% of the West Bank.
Palestinian sources reported that members of the occupation forces infiltrated a commercial vehicle and stormed the city of Al-Bireh, and when they were stopped by the "customs police" agents, the occupation soldiers attacked and abused them.
Activists on social media circulated pictures of the occupation soldiers spreading around the customs police, after they handcuffed them and left them on the ground.
Laila Ghanem, Governor of Ramallah and Al-Bireh, commented on the incident that "the occupation’s targeting of the sons of the Palestinian security establishment - which has been repeated over the past few days, the latest of which was the assault on elements of the customs police - will not deter them from carrying out their duty towards our people."
Four months ago, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced the cessation of security coordination with Israel, against the backdrop of the latter's intention to annex lands in the occupied West Bank.
Settlers' assault
In another context, the occupation authorities prevented owners of olive fields in the West Bank from entering their lands to harvest olives, after they closed about 3 thousand dunums, following the issuance of 63 military orders declaring them closed areas and preventing their owners from entering them.
Palestinian sources stated that the orders prohibit the owners of these lands from entering and staying in them.
This coincided with the escalation of settlers' attacks on Palestinian farmers in the olive fields, especially in the Nablus area, which is subject to deliberate bulldozing and sabotage operations.
The official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, said that Palestinians were harvesting olives on their lands in the Jabal al-Lahuf area, south of Nablus. Settlers from “Yitzhar” settlement attacked them and beat them and threw stones, wounding 3 Palestinians.
For his part, Khaled Maali, a researcher on settlement issues in the city of Salfit in the northern West Bank, said that settlers burned about 50 olive trees in the town of Deir Ballut, west of the city, stressing that some of the burned trees are estimated to be hundreds of years old.