RAMALLAH, August 27, 2018 (WAFA) – Israeli settlers predawn Monday vandalized 15 Palestinian vehicles and spray-painted racist graffiti near them in Sinjil, a village to the north of the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to local sources.

Locals said that settlers broke into the village, where they punctured the tires of 15 vehicles and spray-painted in Hebrew racist anti-Arab graffiti near them and on several vehicles. Some slogans reportedly read “Jews will not be silent”.

The settlers reportedly came from the nearby settlement of Ma‘ale Levona, which, according to the Applied Research Institute of Jerusalem (ARIJ), was established on lands seized from the village along with the lands of the two nearby villages of Al-Lubban Ash-Sharqiya and Abwein.

Israeli media refers to such attacks as “Price tag” attacks. “Price tag” refers to an underground anti-Palestinian Israeli group that routinely attacks Palestinians in the occupied territories and inside Israel.

The Israeli government still refuses to label it as a terrorist organization and considers it only as group of vandals. It also considers such acts as hate crimes against Palestinians.

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

Settlers‘ violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others.

Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in Jewish-only settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law.

All settlements across the West Bank are illegal under international law, particularly article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which establishes that the occupying power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

K.T./ K.F.