RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

Illegal Israeli settlers on Saturday set fire to Palestinian agricultural lands in the town of Yabrud, east of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian officials.

The settlers infiltrated the Bab al-Wad area and ignited fires in grassy fields and olive groves, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Large areas of cultivated land were damaged, while settlers prevented residents from reaching the scene to extinguish the flames, the agency said.

Separately, six Palestinian families were forced to leave their homes in Khirbet Samra, northern West Bank, amid ongoing attacks by illegal Israeli settlers, Mahdi Draghmeh, the head of the al-Maleh village council in the Northern Jordan Valley, told Anadolu.

“Six families, totaling over 25 members, were compelled to dismantle their homes and tents and leave Khirbet Samra, located about 15 kilometers south of Tubas city,” Draghmeh said.

He added that the residents of the community have faced repeated attacks by settlers for years, but the situation worsened after the war on Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, as “they face raids on their homes and the siege of the area, preventing them from accessing grazing lands where they raise livestock.”

Draghmeh said that the residents of the community, which is located in Area C, were forced to relocate to Area A of Tubas governorate.

Under the 1995 Oslo II Accord, the West Bank was divided into three areas: Area A under full Palestinian control, Area B under Israeli security control and Palestinian civil administration, and Area C under full Israeli civil, administrative, and security control, which constitutes about 61% of the West Bank’s area.

The attack came amid a surge in settler violence across the West Bank, where illegal settlers have staged assaults on Palestinians, homes, property and farmland, and established settlement outposts.

Palestinian figures show that at least 415 settler attacks were recorded last month across the occupied territory.

Since the start of Israel’s assault on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 986 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The International Court of Justice last July declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.