Several injured as Israeli settlers attack Palestinians under army protection in West Bank

Several Palestinian citizens, including two women, have been injured after a group of extremist Israeli settlers armed with sticks and rocks attacked homes in the occupied West Bank, local media reports say.

Fouad al-Amour, coordinator of the local Protection and Resilience Committee, which monitors Israeli violations in the area, said that settlers escorted by soldiers hurled rocks at homes in Burin town, south of Nablus and assaulted local residents on Saturday evening, Palestine's official Wafa news agency reported on Saturday.

Several young Palestinian men were injured as they tried to fend off the settlers and defend themselves. At least two women were among those injured in the assault.

Youssef Awad, one of the local residents said that the settlers brutally assaulted him, his wife and another woman by beating them with sticks.

In a separate incident, the Israeli forces assaulted Palestinian olive farmers in Qaryut village, south of Nablus.

Israeli soldiers expelled farmers from their own olive grove and prevented them from harvesting the crop.

Various attacks on Palestinian property, including arson and graffiti, have become a daily occurrence throughout the occupied territories, particularly in the West Bank.

However, Israeli authorities rarely prosecute the Israeli settler assaults on Palestinians and their property and the vast majority of the files are closed due to deliberate police failure to investigate properly.

Israeli settlers have noticeably escalated attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in recent months.

Israeli settlers vandalize Palestinians’ cars in new provocation in West Bank

Extremist Israeli settlers destroy a number of Palestinian-owned vehicles in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil.

The UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator office in the Palestinian territories documented 287 incidents assaults by settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds in which Palestinian properties were damaged since the start of this year.

For years, Israel has clearly allowed its settlers to assault Palestinians and inflict damage on their property as one of its policies. This has included provision of military protection for the attackers, and in some cases troopers' active participation in the assault.

The United Nations has already warned of a surge in Israeli settler violence against Palestinians, mostly in the areas of al-Khalil, al-Quds, Nablus and Ramallah.

Palestine denounces incursion of al-Aqsa compound by Israeli settlers

Palestinians strongly denounce the desecration of the al-Aqsa Mosque by extremist Israeli settlers in the occupied East Jerusalem al-Quds.

More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the West Bank and East al-Quds. 

The UN Security Council has condemned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied territories in several resolutions.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East al-Quds as its capital.

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