The West Bank has witnessed an uptick in Israeli-led violence following the outbreak of the war in Gaza, and in Iran [Getty/file photo]
Israeli police said on Sunday eight suspects were arrested after an overnight attack by Israeli on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank.
“Last night, forces… were called to the village of Qusra in Samaria following a report of an assault and arson of property by Israeli civilians,” a police statement said, using a Biblical term for the northern West Bank.
“During searches, eight suspects were arrested by the forces on suspicion of being in a closed military zone and of involvement in the incident, and were taken in for questioning.”
The suspects were aged between 18 and 48, and during their searches the police also found an M-16 assault rifle issued by the army.
The Palestinian official news agency Wafa, citing local sources, reported that the assault had been carried out by Israeli settlers.
Wafa said they had operated “under the protection of Israeli forces” and “set fire to two poultry farming structures”.
A 32-year old Palestinian man was assaulted in the ordeal, and rescuers said he had “sustained a deep head wound”.
The news agency said the settlers had tried earlier on Saturday evening to attack homes in the village, but residents confronted them.
Qusra, located between Nablus and Ramallah, on 14 March witnessed a deadly attack by settlers who gunned down a local resident and wounded two more, Palestinian officials said.
Violence in the West Bank, which Israel has illegally occupied since 1967, has risen sharply since October 2023 after Israel launched a military onslaught on the Gaza Strip.
There has also been a significant spike in deadly attacks by Israeli settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Iran war, Palestinian authorities and the United Nations have said, with at least six Palestinians killed since 1 March.
Settler assaults on Palestinians have persisted for years, often to the indifference of mainstream Israeli society.
But the recent surge has prompted criticism from influential rabbis, settler leaders, and even Israel’s military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir, who called the attacks “morally and ethically unacceptable”.
Settlers, however, rarely go unpunished for their actions against Palestinians in the West Bank.
