UPDATE - Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian olive trees, stone homes in West Bank

REVISES HEADLINE, DECK, LEDE, ADDS DETAILS ON ANOTHER ATTACK IN BETHLEHEM

By Mohammad Sio

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to olive trees and hurled stones at Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank late Thursday.

The attacks took place in Yatma, a village south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

“A group of illegal settlers from the Rehelim settlement near Yatma set fire to olive trees, a vehicle and a scrapyard in the village, after which they immediately withdrew,” Ahmed Sanobar, head of the Yatma village council, told Anadolu.

He added that locals and firefighters managed to extinguish the blazes.

Illegal Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian homes with stones near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.

Hassan Bureijieh, an expert on settlement affairs in Bethlehem, told Anadolu that settlers from the Efrat settlement hurled stones at Palestinian homes in the Khallet Al Louza area.

He said the stones shattered windows at two homes, causing fear and panic among the residents.

Bureijieh pointed out that such attacks by illegal settlers are recurrent in the area, aimed at pressuring Palestinians to leave.

According to the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, illegal Israeli settlers have killed 19 Palestinians, injured more than 785 others and displaced 28 Bedouin communities since Oct. 7 last year.

Israeli estimates suggest that more than 720,000 illegal settlers live in settlements across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

Tensions have intensified throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel persists in its offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 41,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, since an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year.

More than 700 people have been killed and over 5,700 injured by Israeli gunfire in the occupied West Bank since then, according to the Health Ministry.

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

*Writing by Mohammad Sio in Istanbul