A number of settlers stormed, at dawn on Monday, the city of Al-Bireh, which along with the city of Ramallah constitutes the temporary administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, and set fire to about 20 vehicles in front of their owners’ homes.

Home surveillance cameras showed 10 settlers sneaking under cover of darkness into a suburb of the city, setting fire to a number of cars parked in front of the houses, and fleeing back to nearby settlements.

Ihab Al-Zaben, a resident of the area, told Al-Sharq that he saw about 10 settlers infiltrating the neighborhood, at 3 a.m. local time (1 a.m. GMT), and setting cars on fire using a highly flammable substance.

Citizens demanded that the Palestinian security services provide night guard patrols in the city, which enjoys security and civil sovereignty in accordance with the Oslo Accords.

Settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank have escalated significantly since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza in October 2023, but they were limited to rural areas under Israeli security control, and did not reach cities that are subject to partial Palestinian security sovereignty, and where there are police and security forces. Armed Palestinian woman.

Some activists demanded that those responsible for the Palestinian security services be held accountable for what they described as their “negligence” in providing adequate protection for citizens.

An occupation army force later arrived at the site, photographed the burning cars, and pledged to investigate the incident.

The Palestinian News Agency "Wafa", citing local sources, reported that a number of settlers attacked the industrial zone in the city of Al-Bireh, and burned a number of vehicles there before withdrawing, while fire engines rushed to put out the fire that caught fire in about 20 vehicles.

The sources added that “settlers opened fire in the air and towards civil defense vehicles upon their arrival in the area to put out the fire, before they fled.”

Wafa indicated that settlers burned a vehicle in the town of Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, and wrote racist slogans on the walls. 

Palestinian condemnation

For his part, Palestinian presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina condemned the settlers’ attack on the city of Al-Bireh, and the burning of about 20 Palestinian vehicles, and said that these “attacks and crimes” are nothing but a result of the continuing “war of extermination” waged by the Israeli occupation state. On our people, according to Wafa Agency.

He held the "occupation government and the United States" responsible for these attacks, while calling on the international community to pressure Israel to stop its measures and violations, and to oblige it to all agreements signed with it.

The latest wave of settler attacks and the Israeli army’s siege form part of a trend that human rights groups say is getting worse as the war on the Gaza Strip continues, as settlers appear to be encouraged by some far-right ministers in the Israeli government who are seeking to annex the West Bank. Western.

Many Palestinians, as well as Israeli human rights groups, see the army as "inciting" settlers to launch attacks.

At the same time, settler violence increases the anxiety of Israel's allies in the West. Several countries, including the United States, impose sanctions on settlers who engage in violent acts and called on Israel to make more efforts to stop their attacks.

Many settlers believe that the Jews have a “divine right” to the lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 war (the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip), and on which settlements have been expanding for decades