West Bank: more attacks on Palestinians by Israeli Jewish settlers

Israeli Jewish settlers attacked a number of Palestinians in the north of the occupied West Bank yesterday, Anadolu has reported. Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the district, told the agency that a number of settlers had attacked local residents in the village of Qaryut.

“The settlers were protected by Israeli soldiers,” explained Daghlas. “The soldiers fired bullets, tear gas and sound bombs at the Palestinians.” There were no reported injuries.

Meanwhile, rights activist Aref Daraghmeh reported that a number of Israeli settlers have cleared Palestinian land in Khirbet Al-Farisiyah in the occupied Jordan Valley. “The settlers cleared an area of 10 dunams in order to expand the [illegal settlement] outpost that was established in the area about a year ago,” he wrote on Facebook.

Palestinians accuse the Israeli authorities of aiding and abetting settler attacks as part of official efforts to intensify the number and size of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

All settlements and settlers are illegal under international law. Nevertheless, according to official data, around 650,000 extremist Israeli Jewish settlers live in more than 130 settlements that have been built on Palestinian land since the occupation of the West Bank started in 1967.

READ: Israeli settlers attack shepherds in occupied Bethlehem