IOF troops kidnap eight Palestinians, prevent farmers from harvesting olives

The IOF troops kidnapped eight Palestinians from villages near the northern West Bank town of Tulkarem and stopped farmers from reaching their land to harvest their olive crop.

Local sources in the village of Qaffin, to the north of Tulkarem, said that IOF troops kidnapped Qusai Ayed Hirsha (14 years) and Nabil Khasib (15) from their fields in Qaffin while they were helping their families harvest the olive crop.In the village of Anabta, to the east of Tulkarem, the IOF troops kidnapped three youths from their homes on Wednesday at dawn; Muhammad Isam Nassar (17), Islam Abdel-Karim Ali (17) and Zaid Burhan Hamdallah (17).

The IOF troops also raided the homes of Zeyad Saadah and Izz Toum, but could not find them.

The IOF troops had earlier kidnapped Ersleen Sawalha from Dhennaba east of Tulakarem and who works as an accountant with a charity there. Ersleen is the sister of martyr Eyad Sawalha, one of the commanders of the Islamic Jihad in Jenin.

Two other young men were also kidnapped by the IOF troops on Tuesday from the village of Shufa south of Tulkarem; Musaab Ibrahim (23) and Ala' Fathi Musa (26) after ransacking their homes.

Furthermore, the IOF troops stationed at the gates opposite Deir al-Ghsoun and Qaffin villages to the north of Tulkarem and the village of Kafr Sour to the south of Tulakarem barred Palestinian farmers from reaching their olive groves which lie beyond the apartheid wall under the pretext of the Jewish celebrations of Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

Palestinians who own land that lie behind the apartheid wall are barred from tending their fields and are only allowed to harvest their olive crop by applying for special permits (similar to pass laws during the era of the defunct apartheid regime in South Africa). These permits are usually given to older people denying Palestinian families the help of their younger members during this important season.

Those people are also denied reaching their fields to plough them and clear them of weeds ahead of the olive season, which makes these fields prone to catching fire and affects the yield.