Settlers set fire to 300 olive trees in Bruqin

Jewish settlers from the settlement of Brukhin Thursday set fire to about 300 olive trees in the town of Bruqin, in the northern West Bank, according to Bruqin mayor Ikrimah Samara. He said the fire engulfed about 150 dunums of Palestinian land adjacent to the settlement of Brukhin. One of the land owners told WAFA that a number of Palestinian farmers saw a group of settlers in the area the moment the fire occured. The settlers were seen leaving the area and returning to the settlement after residents and farmers arrived in the area to put out the fire. Samara said that settlers, a few days ago, burnt 120 dunums of land and about 45 decades-old olive trees adjacent to Ariel, an industrial area in Salfit. The settlement of Brukhin is one of the settlement outposts which has become with time, and with the expansion of settlements, a large one at the expense of lands that belong to several Palestinian families. It is composed of more than 80 houses.