Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich ordered for 3,000 trees planted by Palestinians in the northern occupied West Bank be uprooted, to clear the way for a new Israeli settlement. Smotrich, who also holds a ministerial role within the Defence Ministry, said the trees were removed on Wednesday by the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defence Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which oversees civilian affairs in the occupied territory. "We are building the Land of Israel and destroying the idea of a Palestinian state," Smotrich said, reiterating his longstanding anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian rhetoric. He claimed the trees had been planted illegally and said the operation was intended to "prevent attempts by the Palestinian Authority to establish facts on the ground". According to Israeli media reports, the trees had been planted across around 50 acres of land near the Shakak Industrial Park, close to the Shaked settlement in the northern West Bank, before being uprooted. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law, however, Smotrich has continued to push for the expansion of them, despite growing criticism of Israeli uprooting operations and home demolitions across the territory . Israeli soldiers also uprooted hundreds of olive trees near the Palestinian village of Qaryut, south of Nablus, in December 2025, Haaretz reported.
At the time, the village council warned that "the aim is to take over our land" after the Israeli military ordered the removal of what it described as "excess vegetation".
Residents expressed concern that many of the trees had been destroyed and could not be replanted again. Israeli forces have also justified similar uprooting campaigns following attacks involving settlers. After a shooting near the settlement outpost of Adei Ad last August, the army said it had uprooted more than 3,000 trees in the village of al-Mughayyir in the Ramallah governorate, as part of alleged efforts to locate the assailant, including "uncovering vegetation, arresting suspects and searches". Rights groups, including Yesh Din, condemned the latest operation following Smotrich’s announcement. "While the state supports hundreds of illegal outposts which constitute focal points for severe violence by Israelis against Palestinians, it compounds one crime with another, by cutting down thousands of olive trees just because they belong to Palestinians and thereby does mortal damage to the income of thousands of people," the organisation said. The Israeli military has uprooted olive trees, a key cultural and economic symbol for Palestinians, across the occupied Palestinian territories for decades as part of broader policies linked to land confiscation and the displacement of residents. The latest development comes as Palestinians continue to face escalating violence across the West Bank amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and the Iran conflict. Since the outbreak of the Gaza war on 7 October 2023 , the occupied West Bank has experienced a sharp rise in Israeli military raids and settler violence, with tens of thousands of Palestinians displaced from their homes. According to the latest figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 42 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in 2026 as of April, including 10 children and two women. OCHA also reported at least 30 settler attacks causing casualties, property damage, or both, bringing the total number of such incidents since the beginning of 2026 to more than 700 across over 200 Palestinian communities. The organisation added that the village of al-Mughayyir has increasingly faced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers believed to be from Adei Ad and surrounding settlement outposts, alongside intensified Israeli military operations.