On the 15th of April a gang of Zionist settlers from the Kedumim settlement uprooted and destroyed more than 1000 mature olive trees in the village of Jeet, located east of Qalqilya. The trees belonged to Zakariya as-Sadha and Dhafer Khalil, both residents of Jeet. This attack is part of larger series of assaults undertaken by settler mobs against Palestinian farmers.
This is not the first time that settlers of Kedumim have attacked the people of Jeet. On the 11th of April, more than 30 religious settlers ambushed 67-year-old farmer Sadiq Yasri and his wife while they worked on their lands near the Shefat Ami outpost. The attackers threw stones and beat Sadiq Yasri, causing wounds on his face and body. Farmers from the village of Imatin were attacked in a similar manner in the same place at the beginning of this month when settlers attempted to steal their tractor. Upon failing to do so, the settlers damaged the tractor and stole parts of it. In another incident, a settler gang attacked farmers tending their sheep. After beating the farmers they proceeded to kill a number of sheep.
The Kedumim settlement was established in 1975 on land stolen from families living in the villages of Kafr Qaddum and Jeet. The settlement has continued to expand its borders and kill off mature olive trees, which has been catastrophic for local farmers. A number of traditional access routes have been cut off, with Kfar Qaddum being the hardest hit. In 2006, a group settlers from Kedumim set up the Shefat Ami outpost on additional Palestinian land.