The campaign has focused on the Arraba Plain, one of the northern West Bank’s most productive agricultural areas, where bulldozers have razed extensive olive groves along the Arraba-Ya’bad road.

Palestinian residents said Israeli forces confiscated phones and identification documents during some uprooting operations, preventing families from documenting the destruction.

Kamal al-Uraidi, who witnessed the demolitions, said the destruction was part of a broader effort to seize Palestinian land and drive its residents away.

“This is a settlement plan – settlers over there, confiscations here, uprooting trees, Judaisation of the land, expelling people from this land – they want to drive people out,” al-Uraidi said. “Soon, there will be nothing left.”

Meanwhile, the expansion has increasingly surrounded Arraba with Israeli settlements and outposts.

Ahmed Arda, the mayor of Arraba, said farmland covering 1,500 dunams became inaccessible after October 2023, while another 2,800 dunams have recently been rendered inaccessible through settler attacks or military closure orders.

He said 220 dunams were confiscated for the Emek Dotan settlement, while 223 additional dunams have been bulldozed during recent uprooting operations.

The destruction has also targeted trees belonging to Palestinian families.

Around 250 trees belonging to the al-Uraidi family were uprooted this week, while Naim al-Sha’er said settlers destroyed 400 fig trees on Sept. 1.

“It’s not near the road, it’s not bothering any settler – nothing,” said Sha’er. “Every day … you check on [your trees], you feel good watching it grow, little by little. Like your own son.

“And then, [without warning], they kill it.”

The Arraba Plain contains 33,000 dunams of arable land and supports farming communities across the Jenin governorate.

About 70 percent of Arraba’s 13,000 residents depend on agriculture, while 13 agricultural, commercial and industrial facilities have already been demolished and another 54 demolition notices are pending, according to Arda.

“They want to turn most of the Palestinian people into refugees, living in camps,” said Arda.

He said the Israeli campaign aims to sever Palestinians’ connection to their land.

“This is what their Zionist idea is trying to achieve,” said Arda, “that nothing is left to tie us to the land, so that we start thinking about emigration and leaving”.

Dror Etkes, co-founder of the Israeli settlement-watchdog organisation, Kerem Navot, said the campaign represents an increasingly aggressive expansion of the Israeli settlement model into Area A.

“With this package comes everything – military presence, Shin Bet presence, police, demolitions,” said Etkes. “The whole Israeli terror package.”

Despite the destruction, Ahmed al-Fari, whose family lost 150 olive trees, said Palestinians’ connection to their land would endure.

“For us, it’s always the olive tree that keeps us rooted to this land. You come and uproot it thinking you can erase our roots? No, you can’t erase our roots. Our roots go deeper,” said Ahmed.