WEST BANK, October 4, 2015 (WAFA) – A noticeable increase in violence  by Israeli Jewish settlers against Palestinians and their properties was witnessed across the West Bank districts last night and on Sunday, according to local sources and witnesses.

Saturday night, dozens of settlers provocatively broke into the Arab neighborhood of Silwan in Jerusalem, and pelted Palestinians' homes with stones. They also chanted slogans against Arabs and Palestinians, such as 'Death to Arabs”.  

Israeli police also stormed the neighborhood and used rubber-coated ammunition against Palestinians in Silwan, leaving at least 19 Palestinians, including a girl and a woman, injured.

At least two Palestinians were detained by Israeli police in Silwan last night. They were identified as Amer Da'na, 27, and Mahmoud al-A'war. 

Extremist settlers also damaged Palestinians' vehicles in al-Mesrarah neighborhood in Jerusalem and in highway 1, and smashed their windshields. 

Settlers also attempted to raid Bab al-Hadid neighborhood district in Jerusalem's Old City and shouted slogans against Arabs.

Israeli police forces also raided Issawiya neighborhood in Jerusalem last night, provoking clashes with local Palestinians. Police assaulted four paramedics during the clashes. They were identified as Fadi Ebedi, Ali Abu-Ghazaleh, Hamza Asali, and Ahmad Shloudi.

Confrontations were further reported in al-Ram, to the north of Jerusalem, where Israeli forces used teargas canisters, stun grenades and firebombs against protesting Palestinians. 

Later on Sunday, Jewish settlers encircled and attacked a Palestinian home in Khallet al-Fahm, a small village that is close to Gush Etzion settlement bloc in Bethlehem district. 

Mohammad As'ad said a group of settlers under military protection surrounded his home in the morning hours and splattered it with a flammable spray, seemingly in an attempt to set it on fire. 

Meanwhile in Hebron, settlers attacked Palestinian-owned solar cells in Khirbet Mnezel, a village located east of Yatta town, as well as pelted stones towards Palestinians' passing vehicles, smashing their windshields. The solar cells that were attacked by settlers provide the village with electricity.

The situation was also the same at the Nablus-Ramallah main road, which was temporarily blocked for Palestinian traffic. 

Witnesses told WAFA the Israeli army blocked the road in the morning to make way for Jewish settlers from nearby illegal settlements of Shilo and Elli, close to the road, to organize an anti-Palestinian march.

The army also ordered Palestinian vehicles to change their usual routes and to use  unpaved roads instead.

Meanwhile, settlers attacked an olive-planted orchard near the village of Urif, south of Nablus, and set it on fire. The orchard is owned by several Palestinian villagers.

The latest escalation in violence by settlers came in the aftermath of the Israeli attempts to divide al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest place, between Muslims and Jews and the recent heinous murder against Dawabsheh family in Duma, during which four-year-old Ahmad lost his mother, father and 18-month-old brother Ali in a deliberate arson attack. 

Palestinian officials, including President Mahmoud Abbas, have repeatedly warned that such a move will have dire consequences on the overall political atmosphere in the region.

In the past five days, four Israeli settlers were killed in a gunfire attack near Nablus and a stabbing incident in Jerusalem.

M.N/M.H