Eyewitnesses said that the IOF soldiers beat up the 65-year-old Hussein al-Zayed and arrested his son Tawfik, 35, when they tried to prevent the soldiers from taking away their tractor in the Nuwaima area to the north of Jericho.

They added that Palestinian Red Crescent crews took Hussein to the hospital for treatment.

The ZOF soldiers and Jewish settlers had uprooted around 350 olive trees in the same area by the end of last year and razed three houses.