RAMALLAH, Friday, August 23, 2019 (WAFA) – Israeli forces today sealed off main roads leading to the western Ramallah district in the West Bank following a suspected attack that resulted in the killing of a settler, confirmed local sources.

Forces deployed heavily and blocked major roads leading to a cluster of Palestinian villages west of Ramallah, particularly the Wadi al-Dilb Road and Ein Ayyoub junction.

They also blocked the roads leading to Kafr Ni‘ma and Ras Karkar villages, where they ransacked several homes and stores.

Soldiers set up roadblocks at the northern entrance to Ramallah city and at Ein Siniya junction, north of Ramallah, inspecting Palestinian vehicles and inspecting the IDs of passengers. They also raided Beituniya and Ein Arik towns, west of Ramallah.

The closure is conducted as part of a manhunt for a Palestinian suspected of killing an Israeli settler and wounding two others in an attack at Ein Bunin natural spring near the illegal Israeli settlement of Dolev, near Ras Karkar village.

Israeli media claimed that an explosive device was thrown at a settler’s family who were hiking at the spring, killing one and injuring two others. Following the attack, media reports added, the Israeli military is tracking a car that was seen driving away from the scene of the blast.

Israeli officials have usually threatened a series of collective punishment measures following such attacks, such as the demolition of homes belonging to the families of suspected assailants and accelerated settlement construction.

Such Israeli measures, taken under the guise of security, are intended to entrench Israel’s 51-year-old military occupation of the West Bank and its settler colonial project which it enforces with routine and frequently deadly violence against Palestinians.

K.F.