On Friday, 18 October 2024, around 7:00 A.M., farmers from Jit went to harvest olives on their land in the al-Wadi al-Qibli area, between the villages of Jit and Immatin. They spread out in various plots, far from each other. When they arrived, they saw many trees were already picked clean and others had a few olives left.
Around 10:00 A.M., a settlement guard vehicle drove up to one of the groups, which was working in a plot about 400 meters away from the outpost. The farmers recognized several soldiers in the vehicle as area settlers. Four other settlers arrived at the same time. The soldiers ordered the farmers to leave and then looked on as the settlers stole a sack of olives and some farming equipment. The farmers were forced to leave.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi, Muhammad Yamin, 43, a father of two from Jit, said:
On Friday, 18 October 2024, around 6:00 A.M., I went with my brothers and three workers to our land in the al-Wadi al-Qibli area, about 500 meters south of the Mitzpe Yishai outpost. We have 7 dunams (0.7 hectares) of olive groves there. When we arrived in the area, there were six other families harvesting in their land there.
When we reached our grove, we discovered that most of the trees had already been harvested. We realized this when we saw pieces of branches under the trees. We started harvesting anyway. We worked until 10:00 A.M., when a white car belonging to the settlement guard arrived. Settlers dressed in military uniforms came out of it. We recognized them as residents of a nearby settlement. Four other settlers arrived too. They all walked around our olive groves together.
One of the settlers, who was wearing an army uniform, ordered us and other families who worked around us to leave our lands. We’ve never been prevented from accessing our land in our lives, and we’ve never been required to get coordination to access it. Today, the situation has changed because the settlers are after our land.
Under threats from the soldiers, whom we know as settlers, we were forced to leave the land. The other settlers stole a sack of olives and a lawnmower right in front of their eyes. We couldn’t film what was happening because it was tense and we were afraid we would be attacked.