HEBRON, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Israeli occupiers attacked a Bedouin community south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank on Friday, assaulting residents and stealing livestock, local sources told Anadolu.

Sources said occupiers targeted the Wadi Al-Awar area, attacking homes and property, stealing a number of sheep and assaulting residents' belongings. Surveillance footage showed occupiers entering the area, attacking homes, and taking livestock.

Settler attacks in the West Bank have escalated in recent weeks, with eight Palestinians killed by settler gunfire since late February, according to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in hundreds of settlements across the occupied West Bank, including around 250,000 in East Jerusalem. Occupiers carry out frequent attacks on Palestinians that rights groups say aim to forcibly displace them.

Violence has intensified across the West Bank since the start of the war in Gaza on Oct. 8, 2023, encompassing killings, demolitions, displacement, and settlement expansion. The escalation has killed 1,136 Palestinians, wounded about 11,700 others, and led to the arrest of roughly 22,000 people, amid international warnings that Israel may move to annex the territory.

The conflict dates to 1948, when Israel was established on land where armed groups displaced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. Israel later took control of the remaining Palestinian territories and has since rejected both withdrawal and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

*Writing by Lina Altawell in Istanbul