![Palestinians inspect the damage done to their cars after settlers set fire to them in the West Bank on 20 December 2019 [Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/20191220_2_39934670_50517841.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1)
A group of extreme right-wing settlers vandalised the Palestinian village of Asira Al-Qibiliya, based in the south of Nablus city in the occupied West Bank, for the second time within a month in a suspected hate crime, reported Wafa news agency.
Residents of Asira Al-Qibliya found a damaged vehicle that was set on fire and racist slogans calling for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs graffitied on a nearby wall.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of the settlements file in the northern West Bank, told Wafa that a group of Israeli settlers sneaked into the village in middle of the night, torched a vehicle owned by a local citizen, Abdul-Qader Asayrah, and graffitid racists slogans calling for the ethnic cleansing of Arabs.
A wall was also found strewn with the phrase “Jewish blood isn’t cheap” – a slogan commonly used by right-wing settlers.
Rights group Yesh Din said the car belonged to a family and was set alight while they slept in their home nearby.
Attacks, assaults and acts of vandalism are frequently carried out on Palestinian towns and villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank both by illegal settlers and soldiers.
READ: Israeli settlers set up outpost near Hebron to expand illegal settlement
According to the Times of Israel, earlier this month, residents of Asira Al-Qibliya reportedly discovered that a tractor located in the quarry between their village and a neighbouring village, Urif, had been set alight, causing heavy damage.
Recent months have seen a surge in racist attacks against Palestinians and their property allegedly by far-right settlers, in so-called price tag attacks, Yesh Din explained.
Asira Al-Qibliya is close to the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar and its surrounding outposts, which are seen as an epicenter of settler violence and have often been linked to attacks on Palestinians and their property.
Despite such violence becoming increasingly common in the West Bank, the Israeli government still refuses to label the Price Tag group as a terrorist organisation, viewing it simply as an organised group of vandals.