Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in West Bank, snatch livestock at gunpoint

By Qais Abu Samra

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Illegal Israeli settlers on Friday attacked Palestinians in the northern and eastern parts of the occupied West Bank.

Witnesses told Anadolu that a group of illegal settlers assaulted residents of the village of Tana, east of Nablus, using rifle butts.

The illegal settlers reportedly opened fire into the air and prevented the villagers from accessing a water spring used for drinking and watering livestock.

One resident was injured during the attack, sustaining bruises, witnesses said.

A video circulating on social media shows a group of Palestinians confronted by armed settlers.

In a separate incident, illegal settlers attacked the Al-Auja Waterfalls area near the city of Jericho and snatched 300 sheep at gunpoint, witnesses said.

Earlier in the day, Mutaz Bisharat, a Palestinian official overseeing settlement activity in the Tubas and Northern Jordan Valley regions, reported that 14 families from the Um al-Jamal community were forced to flee their homes due to escalating settler attacks.

The violence follows the killing of a Palestinian in the town of Jit on Thursday evening. Settlers attacked the town, setting fire to vehicles and homes.

Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), said in a previous statement that 26 Bedouin communities have been displaced due to settler attacks since Oct. 7.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023.

At least 632 Palestinians have since been killed and nearly 5,400 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land "illegal" and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio