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89% of property fires in West Bank caused by Israeli occupiers, says Palestinian commission

August 29, 2026 at 10:39 am

A Palestinian man and a girl stand inside a home damaged in an attack by Israeli settlers in the Khirbet al-Tuba community in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, West Bank, Palestine on August 6, 2026. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]

Israeli occupiers were responsible for nearly 89% of fires targeting Palestinian homes, buildings and vehicles in the occupied West Bank since the start of 2023, the Palestinian Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission said Friday, Anadolu reports.

The commission said in a report that it documented 900 fires targeting Palestinian property between January 2023 and July 10, 2026.

Occupiers were responsible for 799 of the fires, or 88.8%, while the remaining 101 were attributed to the Israeli army, according to the report.

The number of recorded fires rose from 217 in 2023 to 264 in 2024. In 2025, there were 307 incidents. The commission documented 112 fires between the start of 2026 and July 10.

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Nablus, and the Ramallah and al-Bireh governorates were the most affected, with 281 and 271 fires, respectively.

Together, they accounted for 552 incidents, or about 61.3% of all cases documented by the commission.

The same period also saw 121 Palestinian communities fully or partially displaced, including 46 that were completely emptied, forcing more than 6,200 Palestinians from their homes, including over 3,000 children, said the report.

The commission attributed the attacks to a “government environment of enablement” that protects occupiers and contributes to impunity.

Illegal settlement outposts have increasingly become launching points for attacks involving arson, road closures and restrictions on Palestinians’ access to their land and water sources, it said.

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