Middle East Monitor / March 3, 2021
Extremist Jewish settlers threw stones at homes and vehicles in two Palestinian villages south of Nablus yesterday, Wafa news agency has reported. According to the human rights group Yesh Din, a group of settlers entered Huwara and stoned vehicles, shattering the windows in two of them.
The same extremists also threw stones at a Palestinian home, damaging windows while family members slept inside. A red paint bomb was also thrown at the building.
The Palestinian official in charge of the settlements’ portfolio in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, explained that local residents attempted to prevent any further attacks but were themselves attacked by the settlers. No injuries were reported.
Attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian property are commonplace, particularly by extreme right-wingers. They are rarely held to account by the Israeli occupation authorities. Indeed, in most cases, the settlers who harass and attack Palestinians are accompanied and protected by Israeli soldiers.
In a separate incident, a Jewish settler ran over a Palestinian in a hit and run attack on a road near Al-Funduq village, east of Qalqiliya in the occupied West Bank. The victim was identified as Ali Zaidan from Deir Istiya in western Salfit.
The settler escaped and 25-year-old Zaidan was left on the ground, where he was attacked by stray dogs before being rushed to a hospital in Nablus, local sources reported.
At least 600,000 Jewish settlers live in more than 250 illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. According to international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are ‘occupied Palestinian territories’ and all Jewish settlements built there and the settlers who live in them are illegal.
