Illegal Israeli settlers torch Palestinian vehicle, spray racist graffiti in new West Bank attack

ISTANBUL

Illegal Israeli settlers launched a new attack on Palestinian properties in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, setting fire to a vehicle and spraying racist graffiti in the city of Hebron, southern West Bank, a local said.

Ishaq Idris, a resident, told Anadolu that the attackers stormed the area, surrounded his home, and torched his vehicle before fleeing the scene.

Idris said the latest settler attack was part of an ongoing campaign to pressure Palestinian residents to leave the area and make way for illegal settlement expansion.

The assault follows a deadly settler shooting on Saturday in the town of Aqraba, south of Nablus, where a Palestinian was killed and eight others were injured.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, nine Palestinians have been killed by illegal settlers since the start of 2025, while the death toll from settler violence since Oct. 7, 2023 has reached 31.

The commission also reported that illegal settlers carried out 2,153 attacks across the West Bank in the first half of this year alone.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, at least 1,012 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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