RAMALLAH, Saturday, November 09, 2019 (WAFA) – Illegal Israeli settlers attacked today the village of al-Jaba’a, to the southwest of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, but were thwarted by the citizens of the village who forced them to quit the scene, local sources said.

Diab Masha’lah, head of the village council of al-Jaba’a, told WAFA that settlers from the illegal Israeli settlement of Bat Ayin, nearby, flocked at the east entrance to the village and started to fire firecrackers towards homes and civilians. He said dozens of local citizens rushed to the scene and were able to fend off the settlers’ attack, and forced them to leave.

Violence by Israeli settlers is almost a daily occurrence in the occupied West Bank, and is rarely prosecuted by the Israeli occupation authorities.

Over the past four weeks, the West Bank witnessed a wave of settler attacks, mostly targeting Palestinian farmers as they began the year’s olive harvest.

The cruellest attack occurred on the morning of October 16 when more than 30 settlers, masked and armed, attacked Palestinian farmers and foreign volunteers in Burin, north of the West Bank, injuring three of them, one seriously.

M.N