ZIONIST SETTLERS CUT DOWN OVER 100 OLIVE TREES IN NABLUS AREA

        West Bank, 14 Dhulhijja 1434/19 October 2013 (MINA) – The Zionist settlers Saturday cut down more than 100 olive trees in the Nablus area village of Qaryout, according to Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlers activities in the northern parts of the West Bank.

        He told WAFA that settlers cut down olive trees in more than location of village land using a chainsaw because some trees were cut from the trunk.

         Farmers said they were shocked by the sight of the destroyed olive trees, many of them the farmers have been nourishing for years, according to Palestinian News & Information Agency, WAFA report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA).

         The attack on the olive trees comes in the peak of the olive harvest season, which is the most important time for families throughout the West Bank who make their annual living from the olive harvest.

         Meanwhile the Palestinian leadership urged the United States to pressure Israel to halt settlement activities, member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said Saturday.

          He told a local radio station that Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories create obstacles in the way of implementing a peace process on the ground.

          He said that while all settlement activities are illegitimate and legally void, Washington, the sponsor of the peace process, should pressure Israel to stop its settlement activities. (T/P03/E1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)