Israeli settlers attack Jalud village during pogrom in occupied West Bank | News from the occupied West Bank

Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the northern occupied West Bank, burning homes and vehicles, in the latest attack in a wave of pogroms across the territory.

Settlers burned down two homes belonging to the Tubasi family in Jalud, hours after the family tried to return home under an Israeli court order after nearly two months of displacement, local sources told Turkey’s Anadolu news agency on Tuesday.

The villagers tried to confront the settlers before Israeli forces arrived on the scene, the sources added.

The fires caused significant damage to the two houses while the attack caused panic among residents, the sources told Anadolu.

According to the sources, Israeli forces provided protection for the settlers and sent additional military reinforcements to the area.

Israeli forces also forced members of the Tubasi family to evacuate their homes again at gunpoint, the sources said.

In a statement, the Israeli military said more than 100 settlers rioted in Jalud overnight, preventing Israeli forces from facilitating the return of a displaced Palestinian family to their homes by blocking roads, burning tires and throwing stones at security forces.

“Soldiers and Israeli Border Police forces operated in the Jalud area to disperse Israeli rioters and protect area residents, while the return of a Palestinian family to their home in the area was coordinated,” a statement said.

“Due to the violence, the mission to return the family to their home was not completed,” the military added.

Owner Mahmoud Tubasi told Anadolu that the family reversed the court’s decision, but found significant destruction caused by settlers who had seized the property and prevented its owners from accessing it.

The settlers returned at night and set the house on fire, destroying it and making it uninhabitable, he added.

The Tubasi family was forced to leave their home in Jalud in July after repeated harassment and violence by settlers.

Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has steadily increased since the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, but pogroms have significantly intensified this year.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs recorded more than 1,330 settler-related attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank from January to the end of July, an average of six per day and the fastest rate in about 20 years.

The settler groups, often supported or protected by Israeli soldiers, have attacked Palestinians in several ways, including shooting at them, besieging their homes and engaging in other forms of communal violence that experts have described as pogroms.

Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian land are illegal under international law.

Israeli raids continue

In another attack on Tuesday, Israeli settlers assaulted an elderly Palestinian woman after breaking into her house in Qaryut, south of Nablus, local sources told Anadolu.

A video filmed by volunteer doctor Bashar al Qaryuti shows the woman suffering bruises to her hand and head.

She explained that a group of settlers broke down the door of the house and attacked the woman.

In al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian homes and properties as Israeli army forces raided the village and arrested a young man.

The attack targeted three houses while the attackers set fire to another house belonging to a Palestinian detainee, witnesses told Anadolu.

“We must put an end to the frequent and serious violence,” Julien Lerisson, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross delegation for Israel and the occupied territories, said Monday about the growing settler activity.

“The authorities have a responsibility to protect the population against violence, including when this violence is inflicted by settlers. What international humanitarian law says about the protection of private and public property and the population’s access to essential services must be respected,” he said.

In August, US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described Israeli settlers involved in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank as “terrorists”, warning that such acts seriously damaged Israel’s image.

In June, 14 UN special rapporteurs warned that the sharp increase in “settler terrorism” with state support and complicity in the occupied Palestinian territories posed an existential threat to Palestinian communities.