Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian civilians and property continued unabated today with the vandalism of Palestinian vehicles in al-Sawiya village, south of the northern occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to Ghassan Daghlas, a local official who monitors the illegal Israeli settlement activities.
He told WAFA that settlers sneaked into the village, punctured the tires of eight vehicles and spray-painted racist and anti-Palestinian slogans on them and on walls of several houses.
According to the latest biweekly report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territory published on Friday and covering the period between 12 May and 1 June, 13 Palestinians were injured, and around 480 olive trees vandalized, by Israeli settlers.
It said five of the injuries were children physically assaulted by settlers in the Israeli-controlled area of Hebron city (H2); six were injured when settlers raided the villages of Huwwara and Yatma in the Nablus district; and two when attacked by settlers near a spring close to Deir Nidham village near Ramallah.
Settlers also raided Al Jab’a village in Bethlehem district, and Beitin village near Ramallah, and the Tel Rumeida neighborhood in Hebron city, damaging houses, walls and cars.
In two incidents, residents reported that settlers cut down over 50 olive trees belonging to Yatma and Nahhalin villages, respectively, while another 280 were vandalized near Shufa village in Tulkarm district. Near Haris village in Salfit district, settlers uprooted 150 olive trees.
In three separate incidents in south Hebron, settlers set fire to, or grazed their sheep on, Palestinian-owned land, causing damage to dozens of dunums planted with seasonal crops.
The Israeli human rights organization, B’Tselem, said in earlier reports the Israeli government has failed in its task of protecting the lives, persons, and property of Palestinian from repeated attacks by Israeli civilians in the occupied territories.
It said the various Israeli authorities apply “an unstated policy of tolerance, compromise and failure in bringing about full justice where Israelis who attack the Palestinian population are concerned,” explaining that the Israeli government “applies a double standard between Israelis and Palestinians in law enforcement in the (occupied) territories.”
