Israeli settlers attacked two villages in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, wounding a Palestinian and setting fire to buildings, Palestinian and Israeli sources said, as Israeli forces evicted a nearby settlement outpost .
“Israeli civilians entered the village of Beit Furik, east of the Palestinian city of Nablus,” the Israeli military said, adding that they “burned property and threw stones”.
Local officials told AFP the attacks occurred on Wednesday morning.
The army said settlers reacted after Israeli forces “acted against illegal construction by Israeli civilians adjacent to the town of Beit Furik” on Tuesday night, triggering clashes, during which settlers hit two policemen with stones. Injured.
Nahi Hanani, deputy head of Beit Furik council, told AFP that dozens of residents attacked the village early Wednesday and “set fire to a truck and another vehicle in front of a house”.
“They also set fire to a grocery shop in the village and another house was slightly damaged,” he said.
The army said Israelis “set fire to property and pelted stones” in the town of Huwara, south of Nablus.
Huwara’s town hall spokesman Rana Abu Haniya confirmed to AFP that a resident was wounded in an attack by settlers on the town early Wednesday.
Abu Haniya said, “They burned two cars and a civilian’s house… The army also demolished an old car.”
‘They must have been burnt’
Yousef Awadi, a resident of Huwara, told AFP that settlers burned his brother’s house on Wednesday morning.
“They set fire to the jeep and the car outside… They entered the house, set fire and then left,” the 66-year-old man said. He told that his brother Taseer is admitted in the hospital.
“He was hit on the head and … he was transferred to Rafidiya hospital,” Awadi told AFP. She said that if her brother’s family had not been awake, “they would have all burned down along with the house.”
In a joint statement, the Israeli military and police said that eight suspects in the investigation of the Beit Furik and Huwara attacks were arrested for “attacking security forces, engaging in friction and damaging property.”
Clashes also broke out on Tuesday evening between Israeli forces and “about 20 Israelis” in the town of Rujaib, near Nablus, the army said.
The West Bank is home to approximately three million Palestinians as well as 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Violence in the occupied Palestinian territory has increased since the war in Gaza broke out following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7 last year.
Israeli troops or settlers have killed at least 788 Palestinians in the West Bank since the beginning of the Gaza war, according to the Ramallah-based health ministry.
At least 24 people have also been killed in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the West Bank over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
