A horde of armed Jewish settlers on Tuesday evening set fire to swaths of Palestinian-owned cultivated land in the east of Yatta City, south of al-Khalil City, and prevented local residents from extinguishing the flames.

Local official Fuaad al-Amour said that armed settlers from the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on (built on seized Palestinian land) set vast tracts of cultivated fields ablaze in Tuba area in the east of Yatta.

Amour added that local residents tried to reach the area to save the crops, but the settlers opened fire at them, which led to widespread destruction to the fields and agricultural equipment.