The Israeli occupation forces and settlers continue to tighten the noose on the citizens of Masafer Yatta, by erecting towers and iron gates, chasing citizens and shepherds, vandalizing property and uprooting trees.

Activist Osama Makhamreh said that the occupation forces have escalated their practices against citizens and their property in all residential areas in Masafer Yatta, with the aim of tightening the noose on them and forcing them to leave their lands.

The occupation forces set up a military tower at the entrance to the village of Al-Litwani, which is considered a main outlet for all gatherings in Masafer Yatta.

Yesterday, Monday, an iron gate was installed in the Al-Baraka area, which increases the suffering of citizens in Carmel and the villages of Ma'in and Al-Jawaya, in terms of movement and access to their lands and pastures, while the regions and villages were cut off from each other.

Makhamreh added that the occupation forces and settlers have escalated their practices aimed at pressuring citizens and preventing them from reaching their pastures and agricultural lands, in preparation for seizing them and expanding the settlements built on the lands of Masafer Yatta, or establishing new colonial outposts.

Local sources said that a group of settlers uprooted an olive tree in Khirbet al-Fadheen, owned by citizen Naim Shahada al-Hamamda, vandalized the irrigation network, and stole agricultural equipment.

The head of the Birin village council, Farid Burqan, said that the occupation forces and settlers continue day and night to humiliate the citizens in the villages of Yatta and its environs, as they have installed more military checkpoints, towers and iron gates between the population centers, in order to create a new colonial reality, coinciding with the unleashing of the settlers who carry out provocative tours in all areas, including the Jawaya community, Shaab al-Batm, and the village of Birin, whose residents are prevented from reaching their lands and grazing their sheep after the occupation tightened its control over the entrance to the village after installing a military tower at its entrance last month, and other practices carried out by the settlers under the protection of the occupation forces.

The occupation forces stationed at the entrance to the village of Carmel also confiscated a vehicle after stopping and arresting citizen Karam Abu Aram.