NABLUS, Wednesday, May 05, 2021 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers Wednesday overnight erected a several caravans to serve as the nucleus of a new colonial outpost near Beita town, south of Nablus, according to an official.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli colonial settlement activities in the northern West Bank, confirmed that the settlers took advantage of the closure imposed by the Israeli military on the southern rural areas of Nablus to set up a number of mobile homes atop Jabal Sbeih (Sbeih Mountain) near the town.

The area, south of Nablus, has seen an uptick in settlers attacks since a drive-by shooting left three settlers injured at the northern West Bank junction of Zaatara, also known to settlers as Tapuah, on Sunday.

The shooting followed simmering tensions in the occupied city of Jerusalem following the Israeli police’s recent decision to ban people from sitting on the stairs outside Bab al-Amoud, also known as Damascus Gate, and attempts to forcibly evict dozens of Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is commonplace in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

It includes arsons of property and mosques, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

Over 700,000 Israeli settlers live in Jewish-only colonial settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

K.F.