Israeli settlers Wednesday evening broke into Palestinian land close to Al-Lubban al-Gharbi village, west of Ramallah, to set up a new colonial settlement outpost, according to local sources.
They said that a convoy of buses packed with hundreds of settlers, under military protection, barged their way into Palestinian land close to the village, and others brought their vehicles into the site as a prelude to taking over hundreds of donums of Palestinian land and establishing a new colonial settlement outpost.
Still in Ramallah district, settlers assaulted Palestinians at the Ein ‘Ayub, also written as Ein Ayoub junction, close to Ras Karkar village, west of the city, as the latter were raising Palestine flags in protest of new settlement construction.
Earlier on Wednesday, settlers sprayed toxic chemicals on some 85 grapevines belonging to Jamal As‘ad, a farmer, in the lands of al-Khader town, south of Bethlehem.
Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is commonplace in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
It includes arsons of property and mosques, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.
Over 700,000 Israeli settlers live in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.
Israel’s nation-state law that passed last July stated that building and strengthening the settlements is a “national interest.”
Source: Palestine News & Info Agency