TULKARM, It was supposed to be a normal evening for Burhan Jarrab, 70, who fills his 1970 Bedford truck with vegetables to take them to Nablus.

When Jarrab late last night reached the outskirts of Deir Sharaf town, west of Nablus, a group of settlers ambushed him, blocked his way, and forced him to stop.

They brutally attacked him and threw stones at his truck, forced him out of it, beat him and dragged him on the ground, dumped the vegetables, and set the truck on fire, totally destroying his classic truck, which he took good care of during all these years to keep it running.

Jarrab’s oldest son, Muath, told WAFA that he received a phone call late at night from the ambulance service informing him that the settlers attacked his father and that he was taken to a hospital in Tulkarm.

He said his father suffered injuries and bruises all over his body and that his father could have been in serious condition due to the severity of the beatings from the settlers, explaining that his father has been doing this work for 36 years.

“My father really did not care about the beatings by the settlers, but what saddened him most was the burning of his truck, as if a bullet has hit his heart. It is one of the rare vehicles that are running so far in Palestine and in good condition. It is an authentic heritage that is still preserved despite all these decades,” said Muath. “He considers it one of his valuables, and refuses to exchange or sell it.”

Despite seeing his truck turn to ashes, Jarrab is still determined to “bring it back to life,” said Muath, who went in the morning to Nablus, at his father’s request, to look for spare parts for the truck after he saw that his father was determined to repair it and get it running again.

Settlers last night carried out several attacks against Palestinian civilians in various parts of the occupied West Bank while the army, which is supposedly in charge of keeping the peace in the occupied territories, watched from a distance or even covered up and protected the settlers. People said settlers attacked their homes and vehicles in the north and south of the West Bank inflicting heavy damage on their property and threatening their lives without any attempt by the army to stop them.

Source: Palestine News & Info Agency