Israeli settlers attack Palestinian houses, shops in West Bank

RAMALLAH, Palestine

Israeli settlers burned a Palestinian house and damaged several vehicles and shops in attacks in the occupied West Bank, according to local residents and officials on Sunday.

A dozen settlers set an empty house ablaze and attacked a nearby house in the town of Turmus Ayya, east of Ramallah at midnight, Awad Abu Samra, the brother of a house owner, told Anadolu.

“The attack took place under the watch of Israeli army forces, which were only 150 meters away from the scene,” he said.

Abu Samra added that settlers had also attacked several vehicles in the town.

Ghassan Douglas, a local official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement buildings in the northern West Bank, said Israeli settlers carried out dozens of attacks on Palestinian properties in several towns in Nablus.

“More than 20 shops and 120 vehicles were attacked and six cars were set ablaze overnight,” he added.

The settler violence comes amid rising tension following a shooting attack in a settlement that left at least seven Israelis dead in occupied East Jerusalem Friday night.

The attack came one day after at least nine Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli military operation in the West Bank city of Jenin on Thursday.

According to UN estimates, Israeli settlers carried out 849 attacks on Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank in 2022.

* Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report