Illegal Israeli settlers have torched Palestinian vehicles and houses in the occupied West Bank, Israel's army and villagers said, the latest in a series of attacks on the Palestinian village of Bruqin.
Palestinian residents in Bruqin, who say they have faced constant attacks and abuse from Israeli settlers nearby, said a large group had shown up during the night, throwing Molotov cocktails and beating anyone in their way.
Akram Sabra, a resident of the village, said he had left his home to watch as dozens, possibly a hundred, people burned cars belonging to him and his family and threw a Molotov cocktail incendiary at his son's house.
"I saw my vehicles were burned and then they beat me on the head and I am still dizzy," he said.
The Israeli military said it had received a report on Thursday that Israeli civilians had vandalised property in the area of the village, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
"Upon receiving the report, IDF (Israeli army) soldiers were dispatched to the scene. The suspects fled prior to the arrival of IDF soldiers," it said, adding that no injuries were reported and the incident was under review.
Israeli military have imposed a strict lockdown in and around Bruqin following the killing of Tzeela Gez, a pregnant resident of the nearby settlement of Bruchin.
Since the killing of Gez, Palestinians have reported multiple attacks in the area by settlers who have burned cars, thrown stones and incendiary devices at houses and bulldozed land belonging to Palestinians.
"They come at us almost on a daily basis, even sometimes several times a day," said Mustafa Khater, 45, another Bruqin resident. "They attack us with stones and abuse."
1,449 attacks last year
The United Nations humanitarian organization OCHA said more than 11,000 Palestinians in Bruqin and Kafr ad Dik towns were blocked in, with 28 attacks by Zionist settlers resulting in injury or property damage reported in the week to May 19.
In all, it said there were 1,449 attacks last year, the highest level in more than 20 years.
Zionist attacks against Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank have intensified sharply since the start of Israeli's genocide in Gaza, as new settlement building has accelerated under the extremist regime of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The latest attacks took place as the Israeli military has been conducting its largest operation in the West Bank since the Second Intifada, or uprising two decades ago.
The operation, which has focused on refugee camps in volatile northern cities including Jenin and Tulkarm, has displaced more than 40,000 Palestinians, according to United Nations figures, and added to fears among many Palestinians of a wider drive towards a full Israeli occupation of the West Bank.
Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farmland near Ramallah
Meanwhile, illegal Israeli settlers have set fire to Palestinian agricultural land east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, media reports said on Friday.
The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, said the arson attack targeted more than 200 square metres of land between the villages of Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, with the Israeli military protecting the Zionist settlers during the assault.
Wafa noted that attempts by settlers to burn Palestinian land east of Ramallah have become a daily occurrence.
Since the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza since October 2023, nearly 970 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 wounded in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.​​​​​​​
The International Court of Justice declared last July that Israel's longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, and called for the evacuation of all illegal settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Several leading ministers in Netanyahu's regime, including the pro-illegal settler Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, have called openly for the annexation of the occupied West Bank and the expulsion of large sections of the Palestinian population.
The occupied West Bank, which Palestinians see as the core of a future independent country along with Gaza and occupied East Jerusalem, was seized by Israeli military in the 1967 Middle East war and been under military occupation ever since.
The West Bank is home to about three million Palestinians, but some 500,000 illegal Israelis also occupy areas there.
Settlement outposts, built informally and sometimes overnight, are considered illegal under Israeli law too, although enforcement is relatively rare. Most countries consider Zionist settlements to be illegal under international law.
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Source: TRT