NABLUS, Thursday, October 13, 2022 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers Thursday evening torched a park and three trucks in Huwara town, south of Nablus city, according to a local activist.
Kamal Odeh, a Fatah activist, said that the settlers, under the cover of the Israeli military, set fire to the Huwara Park as well as to privately-owned three trucks, with the flames consuming them entirely.
The assailants, who came from Yitzhar, a nearby colonial settlement, attacked Palestinian storefronts and cars, including a Palestinian Civil Defense firefighting truck that arrived at the scene to extinguish the flames, smashing its windshields and spewing pepper spray in the faces of the firefighters.
They also attacked six houses in the town, hurling stones at them and smashing their windows.
Yitzhar is notorious for its hardcore Jewish settler community who in the past committed several attacks against Palestinians and their property.
Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers backing the settlers detained six Palestinians for confronting the assailants.
Israeli forces were using tear gas and live fire to protect the assailants and disperse Palestinians attempting to fend off the settler attack.
Earlier today, settlers barged their way into the main street of the town and attacked Palestinian property, breaking the storefront windows of 15 stores and 20 vehicles parked on both sides of the street.
The Israeli military have been recently maintaining large deployments surrounding Nablus and have sealed several roads with dirt mounds and closed checkpoints leading to the city and surrounding villages following the killing of a soldier in a shooting close to the illegal colonial settlement of Shavi Shomron on Tuesday afternoon.
Settlers have also taken to blocking roads in recent days around the city Nablus, using large rocks or small boulders or by standing in the roads in large groups and making it increasingly difficult to Palestinian commuting from the northern part of the West Bank to access the central and southern parts, as the main road connecting north to south runs through Nablus and Huwara.
Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.
There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
K.F.
