Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian village in occupied West Bank, burn vehicles

By Qais Abu Samra and Betul Yilmaz

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) – Illegal Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday and set vehicles ablaze, a local official said.

“A group of illegal settlers attacked the village of Umm Safa in Ramallah and burned three vehicles,” municipal chief Marwan Sabah told Anadolu.

“The situation is tense in the village, where Palestinians live in constant fear due to the escalation of settler attacks,” he said.

Sabah said the village has come under repeated attacks by illegal settlers in recent years as the Israeli army continued to disrupt the movement of residents by blocking all entry points to the area.

According to figures released by the official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli actions have displaced 29 Palestinian communities of around 2,000 people in the West Bank from Oct. 7, 2023, to December 2024.

In February alone, illegal settlers carried out 230 attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, the commission said.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank, where at least 930 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers since the start of the onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s long-standing occupation of Palestinian territories illegal, calling for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.