The Israeli army uprooted thousands of olive trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir — an area of ​​about 300 dunams (74 acres) — over the past three days, following a shooting attack in the area last week carried out by a resident, according to Sunday reports in Palestinian media.

In addition, a three-day curfew was imposed on the village, which was lifted Sunday morning, according to the reports.

The Israel Defense Forces later on Sunday confirmed the reports, but denied that the moves were intended as collective punishment for the village.

On Thursday night, the chief of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, during a visit to the scene of the shooting, said that al-Mughayyir would “pay a heavy price” for the attack the previous day, in what appeared to be a declaration of collective punishment on towns where attacks or attackers come from.

“Every village and every enemy needs to know that if they carry out an attack against [Israeli] residents, they will pay a heavy price; they will experience a curfew, they will experience a closure, and they will experience ‘shaping operations,'” he said, apparently referring to the uprooting of the trees.

A “shaping operation” in military terms refers to efforts to create or preserve advantageous conditions for future operations by affecting enemy vulnerabilities.

“We will now focus our effort… on the village of al-Mughayir, which has carried out quite a few attacks recently; we are now locking in on this village,” Bluth said, according to remarks published by the IDF.

“We will also deliver this message to the village: The village carries out an........

© The Times of Israel