Israeli settlers torch West Bank villages as wave of violence sweeps territory

WEST BANK: Palestinian residents reported Sunday that Israeli settlers set fire to buildings and vehicles across several West Bank villages.

Israel’s army condemned “violence of any kind” after the attacks.

The arson late Saturday occurred amid a wave of killings of Palestinians by settlers since the outbreak of the Middle East conflict.

Agence France-Presse journalists documented the charred remains of a house and multiple vehicles in Fandaqumiya, southwest of Jenin.

In Jalud, a medical center was burned and Hebrew graffiti defaced the local mosque.

Hassan Al-Zoubi watched his Fandaqumiya home go up in flames.

“They set the house on fire right before our eyes using Molotov cocktails, throwing them through the windows,” Zoubi told Media.

About 200 attackers came from the nearby Homesh settlement, he said.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that several Palestinians were injured in the attacks.

The Israeli army said soldiers had been “dispatched to several Palestinian villages” following reports of acts of arson.

“The security forces condemn violence of any kind,” the military said in a statement.

They will continue “to maintain the security of residents and public order in the area,” it added.

The incidents came after the army alleged an Israeli civilian died Saturday when a Palestinian vehicle reportedly struck an Israeli vehicle.

Israeli police said they were investigating whether the incident was “terror-related.”

Six Palestinians have been shot dead in settler attacks in the West Bank since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran, according to data from the Ramallah-based health ministry.

The Palestinian presidency condemned the recent “terrorist attacks carried out by Israeli colonist gangs” in the West Bank.

“These assaults constitute a serious escalation,” it said.

“The Israeli occupation government bears full responsibility.”

Diplomats from 13 European nations and Canada on Saturday decried “increasing settler terror.”

Violent attempts to seize Palestinian land “must end,” they said.

Alongside roughly three million Palestinians, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements and outposts in the West Bank.

These settlements are illegal under international law.

Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas incursion into southern Israel triggered the Gaza genocide.

Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 1,050 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the genocide, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures. AFP