On Friday, 18 October 2024, at around 7:00 A.M., farmers from the village of Jit arrived at their lands in the al-Wadi al-Qibli area, south of the village. After about half an hour, a settlement guard approached the farmers and demanded they leave, claiming they were not allowed to harvest in that area. The farmers refused, and the guard left.
After about 30 more minutes, several soldiers arrived in a military vehicle along with about 15 settlers. The soldiers told the farmers they had to leave to avoid a confrontation with the settlers.
They did, leaving behind their harvest tools and hoping to return to collect them another day. When they did three days later, they saw everything had been stolen. Unable to harvest again, they went home.
Fearing more attacks and theft, the farmers had to coordinate further harvesting with the Israeli authorities.
In a testimony he gave B’Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi, ‘Abd a-Rahim a-S’adi, 78, a father of eight, said:
On 18 October 2024, at 7:00 A.M., I went with relatives to our seven-dunam plot (1 dunam = 1,000 sq. meters) in al-Wadi al-Qibli area, about 350-400 meters east of the Mitzpe Yishai outpost. There were about 10 people from our family there. When we arrived, we laid down the tarps under the trees, set up the ladders, and started harvesting.
After about half an hour, a settlement guard came and told us we weren’t allowed to keep harvesting. We ignored what he said because we always come to this land, without any need for prior coordination with the Israeli authorities. The guard left and we continued picking olives.
About half an hour later, a military jeep and a group of about 15 settlers showed up.
The soldiers who arrived in the military jeep ordered us to return home “to avoid friction and problems with the settlers” who had spread out on our agricultural lands. The soldiers insisted that we leave, and so we did. We left the plastic tarps and ladders behind, hoping to come back and pick them up another day, when the settlers weren’t around.
On Monday, 21 October 2024, three days after that incident, we decided to go back to the plot. When we arrived, we couldn’t find the things we’d left, which included 10 plastic tarps and some ladders.