Israeli settlers attacking Palestinian towns and destroying property is a daily reality [Getty]
Israeli settlers carried out a series of violent attacks on Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank overnight and into Sunday morning, including assaults on towns, damage to homes and vehicles, attacks on cemeteries, and attempts to storm a mosque, according to local residents and rights groups.
The attacks came alongside continued Israeli military raids and arrests across multiple areas of the occupied territory.
Munir Abu Yaqoub, mayor of the town of Kifl Haris north of Salfit, told The New Arab that “around 30 settlers attacked the town of Kifl Haris at dawn on Sunday, assaulted residents’ property, and attempted to storm a mosque in the centre of the town without causing damage”.
He said residents tracked the attack through surveillance cameras after it took place between 3:30 am and 4:00 am.
Abu Yaqoub said settlers regularly enter Islamic religious sites in the town under claims that they are Jewish holy places, where they perform Talmudic rituals, but noted that Sunday’s raid took place without direct protection from the Israeli army.
He added that attacks on the town have intensified since the start of 2025, including the closure of main entrances, land confiscations for settlement roads, and the uprooting of trees.
“More than 500 dunams were confiscated previously,” Abu Yaqoub said, warning that 600 dunams of land in the villages of Kifl Haris, Marda and Qira are also at risk of being seized.
Local sources in Salfit also said settlers from a nearby outpost uprooted olive trees belonging to Palestinian residents in the Wadi al-Shaer area.
In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, activist Osama Makhamera told The New Arab that settlers attempted to steal livestock from Khirbet al-Halawa, while others vandalised a memorial to slain activist Suleiman al-Hathaleen in Khirbet Umm al-Kheir and damaged nearby trees.
In Bethlehem, settlers again damaged gravestones in a cemetery serving the villages of Kisan and al-Rashaydeh, days after a similar incident.
Settlers also threw stones at Palestinian homes in the Khillet al-Nahla and Abu Injim areas, injuring one resident, while others grazed sheep on Palestinian farmland in Nahalin, damaging crops and trees.
Elsewhere in the northern occupied West Bank, local sources said settlers smashed two vehicles and slashed their tyres in the village of Majdal Bani Fadel south of Nablus, while others attacked Palestinian vehicles with stones near Awarta.
Four Palestinians were also injured in an attack involving stones, clubs and pepper spray in Wadi al-Rakhim in Masafer Yatta, according to local sources, who described the injuries as moderate.
Separately, Hassan Mleihat, head of the al-Baydar rights organisation, told The New Arab that settlers attacked the Arab al-Kaabneh community west of al-Auja north of Jericho, cutting a metal fence around a resident’s home and photographing livestock inside the enclosure.
Mleihat added that other settlers entered the Wadi al-Hayat community and stole money.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank, detaining young men, children and a 16-year-old girl from several areas, according to local sources.
Israeli troops also stormed the municipal building in Beit Awa, west of Hebron.
During overnight raids, a Palestinian man was shot with live ammunition in the stomach and hand during an Israeli incursion into Beit Ummar north of Hebron, while two others were shot in the legs during a raid into Beit Fajjar south of Bethlehem, local sources said.
