Israeli illegal settlers assault Palestinians, set fire to agricultural land in occupied West Bank

By Awad al-Rujoub

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Israeli illegal settlers assaulted Palestinians and their properties in different areas across the occupied West Bank on Friday evening.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, settlers set fire to a large area of cultivated land belonging to Palestinians from the village of Burqa, located east of Ramallah. The settlers reportedly came from the nearby settlement outpost of Oz Zion.

Following the attack, the Israeli army entered Burqa, firing stun grenades and teargas canisters at villagers' homes and obstructing Palestinian firefighting teams from reaching the burning land, Wafa reported.

In a separate incident, settlers took control of a spring water source near the village of Beit Furik, east of Nablus.

In the eastern West Bank, settlers targeted a Bedouin community northwest of Jericho. Hassan Malihat, general supervisor of Al-Baydar Organisation for Defending Bedouin Rights, stated that settlers attacked the Bedouin community of Arab Al-Malihat. He noted that these Bedouin communities have faced repeated attacks by armed settlers, aiming to forcibly expel them from their land.

Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have spiked since Oct. 7, according to Palestinian sources.

The methods employed by illegal settlers varied from firing live ammunition to beatings, stoning vehicles, and attacking homes, families, and farmers.

The overall death toll of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7 by the Israeli army and settlers reached 673, in addition to over 5,400 others injured, according to the Palestinian 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 called for the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Ahmed Asmar