Israeli settlers terror attack on five West Bank villages
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Palestinian officials say Israeli settlers attacked five villages in the occupied West Bank overnight, torching vehicles and olive trees, and leaving graffiti on the walls of homes.
Ghassan Daghlas, a spokesman for the Nablus governorate, says the Jewish settlers set fire to five cars and spray-painted graffiti on more than 20 others. Villagers circulated photos of the damage on social media.
Israeli police say they are investigating the reports and that police and military units will visit the area.
Hundreds of thousands of Jewish settlers live in the West Bank, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Mideast War. The Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their future state.
NABLUS, Nov 22, 2019 (WAFA) — Israeli settlers today overnight torched several Palestinian vehicles and scrawled hate graffiti in the northern West Bank district of Nablus, said a settlement watchdog.
Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli colonial settlement construction in the northern West Bank, said that a group of settlers sneaked their way into Majdal Bani Fadel and Qabalan villages, where they torched several vehicles and scrawled anti-Palestinian hate graffiti.
Settlers also overnight sneaked their way to Beit Dajan village, east of Nablus city, where they vandalized a villager’s house and set his vehicle on fire.
The house owner was identified as Thaer Hanaysha.
This came as another group of settlers vandalized some 50 Palestinian in Kafr Ad-Dik village, west of the West Bank city of Salfit.
Many Palestinian activists and rights groups have repeatedly blamed Israel for fostering a “culture of impunity” for Jewish settlers committing violent acts against Palestinians.
“Price tag” refers to an underground anti-Palestinian Israeli group that routinely attacks Palestinians in the occupied territories and inside Israel.
The Israeli government still refuses to label it as a terrorist organization and considers it only as group of vandals. It also considers such acts as hate crimes against Palestinians.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
Settlers’ violence includes property, church and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.
Over 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
