Israeli settlers launched several attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank [Getty]
Israeli settlers on Wednesday set fire to two cars and spray-painted racist slogans after forcibly entering Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank, reports state.
The settlers descended on the town of Atara, located north of Ramallah, early on Wednesday and destroyed the property of Palestinians living in the area, the official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, reported.
The two vehicles belonged to a resident named Ayoub Abu Arjila and his wife, and were completely destroyed in the arson attack.
Local sources said that the residents woke up to large flames and thick, dark smoke rising from the area where the cars were parked, before it spread to homes nearby. The settlers then withdrew and went back to their illegal outpost, located on Palestinian land, north of the town.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces assaulted three Palestinian men who were passing through the Deir Sharaf checkpoint, west of Nablus, on Wednesday.
The Red Crescent’s director in Nablus, Amjad Ahmad, told reporters that ambulance crews quickly transported the men to hospital following the assault.
Elsewhere in the city, Israeli forces ordered shop owners in the town of Huwara, south Nablus, to close their shops.
Rana Abu Haniyeh, the head of the public relations department at Huwara Municipality, confirmed that shop owners were told to close their stores at gunpoint, while several Palestinian homes in the town were also raided.
Huwara has been under an Israeli siege since February 2023 and is subject to frequent attacks from violent Israeli settlers.
In Jenin, too, Israeli forces continued the destruction of Palestinian property and harassment of residents.
The city’s al-Ghabz Street, located near Jenin refugee camp, was bulldozed and local sources said that Tal’at al-Ghanem area was also razed in the latest string of attacks.
This comes just a day after Israeli forces instructed the residents of 15 apartments in the al-Taher building to evacuate from their homes due to them turning it into a closed off military zone.
The latest developments come as the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said on Wednesday that Israel’s decision to continue barring the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) from visiting Palestinian detainees held in Israeli jails is another way of concealing the abuse against Palestinians.
The decision was made under the pretext of “security concerns” and has sparked concerns in Palestine that it will allow prison authorities to continue holding detainees in dire conditions and committing abuses against them.
The PPS said that the decision to ban the ICRC from visiting Palestinians held in Israeli jails comes against the backdrop of growing calls for the organisation to resume visits, which came to a stop when Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023.
The PPS also noted it has documented a surge in abuses against Palestinian detainees, particularly since the last prisoner exchange deal as part of the ceasefire deal.
The organisation said that this comes following preliminary approvals by the Knesset committees for legislation that would allow for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.
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