Escalation of Settler Attacks in the West Bank: Injuries from Hit-and-Run, Stabbing, and Property Theft in Several Governorates

Groups of settlers have escalated their field attacks targeting Palestinian citizens and their properties in various areas of the occupied West Bank since last night until this Sunday morning. Field sources reported that these violations varied between direct physical assaults and targeting livestock and agricultural resources, resulting in various injuries among citizens.

In Nablus Governorate, sources recorded that a student from the village of Ammuriya sustained various injuries after being deliberately run over by a settler while she was walking to her school, 'Banaat Al-Lubban Secondary School'. This attack coincided with another group of settlers infiltrating the village of Jalud at dawn, where they stole a transport cart belonging to a citizen before fleeing towards the surrounding settlement outposts.

The road between the towns of Beita and Aqraba also witnessed a violent attack on Saturday evening, where a 21-year-old young man was severely beaten by a group of settlers, necessitating his transfer to the hospital for treatment. The attackers did not stop there; they also detained a number of passing Palestinian vehicles in the area and sprayed citizens and children with burning pepper spray.

In the town of Qusra, southeast of Nablus, a citizen was injured after being stabbed with a sharp object during an attack carried out by settlers on the outskirts of the town. This incident comes in the context of continuous attempts by settlers to terrorize local residents and impose a new geographical reality through direct attacks on the urban areas of Palestinian villages.

As for Ramallah Governorate, popular protection committees monitored intensive movements of settlers this Sunday morning in the eastern areas of the town of Taybeh. Settlers released their herds of cattle and camels into pastures and agricultural lands belonging to a Bedouin community in the area, in a move aimed at destroying crops and restricting the livelihoods of residents.

In a related context, settlers stormed the vicinity of the Abu Awwad family home in the town of Turmus Ayya, north of Ramallah, yesterday evening, where they brought their sheep into the courtyards surrounding the residential home. These scenes were repeated in several areas adjacent to settlements, where settlers seek to transform the surroundings of Palestinian homes into grazing areas belonging to them under the protection of occupation forces.

In Salfit Governorate, a number of Palestinian youths gathered in the western area of the town of Deir Ballut to confront settlers' attempts to storm agricultural lands. The youths succeeded in thwarting the field movements that aimed to destroy agricultural properties in that area, amidst local calls to raise the level of alert to confront any potential attacks.

Human rights reports indicate that the pace of these attacks has significantly increased in recent hours, with settlers now using various methods including hit-and-run, stabbing, and theft. These reports confirm that the primary goal of these practices is to exert economic and psychological pressure on Palestinians to push them to leave their lands for settlement expansion.

In response to this escalation, civil society organizations and popular committees in various West Bank governorates launched urgent calls to escalate popular resistance and collectively confront settler attacks. These bodies emphasized the necessity of activating night watch committees and protecting public and private properties, especially in villages and towns surrounded by settlement outposts from which these attacks originate.

These practices come within the systematic economic tightening policy to push residents towards displacement from their lands.