A picture of a row of cars burned by Israeli settlers in a Feb. 2023 revenge attack after two Israeli brothers were allegedly killed by a Palestinian gunman in Hawara, West Bank. Video footage from Tuesday’s terror attack on the industrial zone near the western village of Beit Lid showed tents on fire, women screaming and masked settlers carrying clubs amid vehicles set ablaze. File Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
New video footage depicted scores of Israeli settlers launching an arson attack on multiple Palestinian-owned property in occupied West Bank.
On Tuesday, around 10 vehicles, a warehouse, plastic factory, farmland and a Bedouin village in northern West Bank fell prey to a series of targeted attacks by illegal settlers in the region via Israel.
Multiple Palestinians were reported injured by thrown stones or beatings. Israeli police officials said four suspects were arrested.
It was the latest in a string of “shocking and serious” attacks, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said.
The footage from Tuesday’s terror attack on the industrial zone near the western village of Beit Lid showed tents on fire, women screaming and masked settlers carry clubs amid vehicles set ablaze.
The attacks came part of a campaign to impose a “hostile environment through intimidation and terror,” Palestinian Authority Minister Muayyad Shaaban, the head of its Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, told the BBC.
More than 500,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank out of the total population of 4 million.
It arrived almost immediately after the United Nations’ humanitarian office said the number of violent attacks by Israeli setters in the last month was its highest in nearly 20 years.
Herzog blamed “a handful of violent and dangerous individuals.”
“Such violence against civilians and against IDF soldiers crosses a red line and I condemn it severely,” Israel’s president added.
The Israeli military said troops were present to “disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means and apprehended several Israeli civilians.” The IDF claimed soldiers were then attacked.
The IDF’s head of Central Command said the attacks undermined “the stability of the security situation.”
“The reality in which anarchist fringe youth act violently against innocent civilians and against security forces is unacceptable and is extremely serious,” said Major General Avi Bluth. “It must be dealt with firmly,” he added.
“The directive to IDF soldiers is clear: do not stand idly by and do everything in your power to prevent any act of nationalist crime,” Bluth reportedly instructed Israeli military commanders.
