NABLUS, April 22, 2017 (WAFA) – Around 100 Israeli settlers Saturday attacked the Nablus area village of Orif provoking Palestinian residents and leading to clashes, according to a local official.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlements in the north of the West Bank, told WAFA that at least 100 Israeli settlers attacked the village, spurring clashes with Palestinian residents.

Reports said four Palestinians were hit by Israeli army rubber-coated metal bullets after soldiers opened fire at the Palestinian civilians who were trying to protect their village from the extremists settlers.

Armed settlers regularly attack and provoke Palestinian civilians, and, based on the Israeli rights group, Yesh Din, Israeli police has failed to investigate ideologically motivated offenses committed against Palestinians.

B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights, has also said that while it is the duty of Israel, the occupying power, to protect the Palestinians in the West Bank from settlers’ attacks, it does not do enough to prevent Israeli civilians from attacking Palestinians, their property and their lands.

“The undeclared policy of the Israeli authorities in response to these attacks is lenient and conciliatory. Perpetrators are rarely tried, and many cases are not investigated at all or are closed with no operative conclusions,” said B’Tselem.

T.R./M.K.