Palestinians said that Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank burned about 200 of their olive trees on Sunday and also torched surrounding grazing land. The alleged attackers were seen heading in the direction of the nearby Elon Moreh settlement after setting fire to the trees on land owned by the Palestinian village of Salem, village council spokesman Adli Ishtayeh said.
He said that the trees were on ground adjoining the settlement and, for reasons of Israeli security, kept off limits to their owners for most of the time. He said that the Israeli army, which polices the area, had been notified.
A military spokesman said no complaint against the settlers had been made and that troops on the scene were treating the incident "as a fire, not arson" after unseasonably hot and dry weather.
Since the start of the olive harvest last month, there have been scores of Palestinian complaints about settlers cutting down trees, stealing olives or preventing farmers from harvesting their crops, rights groups and police say. A settler spokesman said he was investigating the report.
However, following a similar allegation against Elon Moreh residents on October 26, a spokesman said Palestinians were waging a "blame campaign" to try to discredit local settlers, and that it had no basis in fact.