Middle East Monitor / March 31, 2022
Last night, Jewish settlers vandalized dozens of Palestinian cars across the occupied West Bank, reported Wafa news agency.
According to local Palestinians, a group of settlers hurled stones at Palestinian vehicles travelling near the entrance of Rameen village, north of Tulkarm, causing damage to a taxi with passengers inside.
Moreover, in Nablus district, settlers gathered at main traffic junctions and threw rocks directly at the windows of Palestinian vehicles, near the villages of Burin and Burqa, located south-west and north-west of the city, causing serious damage to several windshields and doors.
Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors Israeli violations in the area, said, settlers also attacked a Palestinian home in Asira al-Qibliya, south of the city and spray-painted racist graffiti across its walls.
Tyres were also slashed and the windows smashed of several parked cars in the area.
He also warned of the rising levels of settler violence which typically take the form of graffiti, vandalism and damage to property, but can also entail physical assaults leading to injury or even fatalities.
The latest series of attacks last night comes after the EU called for the protection of the Palestinians yesterday, to deter illegal settler violence.
“Israeli [Jewish] settlers injured several Palestinians, torched cars and damaged commercial structures in different parts of the West Bank,” the EU Delegation to the Palestinians tweeted. “Rising levels of settler violence only fuel further tensions.”
The delegation added that the Palestinians should be protected in accordance with Israel’s obligations under international law. “This is imperative now to prevent further violence ahead of Ramadan, Pesach and Easter which coincide in April.”
Incidents of vandalism and violence by extremist Jewish settlers against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence in the West Bank. Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the occupied territories are considered illegal.
