Before dawn broke over the hills of Masafer Yatta, Israeli settlers descended on Palestinian farmland in the village of Susiya, uprooting 150 olive saplings and tearing apart a fence meant to protect the land. The attack is one of many in a pattern of escalating settler violence that aims not just to destroy trees, but to uproot a people.

The land targeted belongs to Mohammad Makhameh, a local farmer whose livelihood, like many in the region, depends on the centuries-old olive groves passed down through generations. But such attacks have become routine in the West Bank, where Palestinian farmers face daily threats from settlers emboldened by Israeli military protection and a judicial system that rarely holds them accountable.

Beyond the vandalism, Israeli authorities continue to issue new seizure orders for land and roads, laying the groundwork for settlement expansion that cuts deep into the heart of Palestinian life. One such road, Al-Tariq Al-Sultani, risks severing access to large swathes of agricultural land. Others are designed to link illegal outposts like Avigail and Givat Hanan, both built on Palestinian land, with broader infrastructure, further erasing the boundaries between settlement and occupation.

What is unfolding in Masafer Yatta is not simply harassment, it is a calculated campaign to fragment Palestinian territories, strangle local economies, and force communities into displacement. The silence of the international community only deepens the sense of abandonment for those left to defend their land tree by tree, stone by stone.