Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian town, vandalize properties in occupied West Bank

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Illegal Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank and vandalized properties, witnesses said on Wednesday.

“A group of settlers from Horsha settlement raided the town of Al-Mazra’a Al-Gharbiya northwest of Ramallah and set fire to three vehicles,” an eyewitness told Anadolu.

Video footage shared on social media showed several vehicles in flames after the settler attack on the town.

The same town came under previous settler attacks that saw a water plant sabotaged and properties vandalized.

On Nov. 5, illegal Israeli settlers set fire to some 20 Palestinian vehicles in Al-Bireh city in the central West Bank.

The Palestinian official news agency Wafa also reported another settler attack in Minya village near Bethlehem.

According to the broadcaster, settlers attempted to steal livestock in the village, but villagers confronted them.

According to Palestinian sources, Israeli settlers staged nearly 1,500 attacks over the past year against Palestinians, their land, and properties across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Data from Peace Now, an Israeli anti-settlement organization, indicates that over half a million settlers reside illegally in 147 settlements and 224 outposts in the West Bank.

Tension has been running high in the West Bank due to Israel’s brutal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed nearly 44,000 people, mostly women and children, following a Hamas attack last year.

Nearly 785 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar