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NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Yizhar set fire to Palestinian land on Friday near the village of Burin, south of Nablus.

“A group of settlers from Yizhar had set fire to dozens of Dunams in that area,” a member of Burin's agricultural committee, Belal Eid, told Ma'an Friday.

Residents of Burin and members from the Palestinian civil defense crew are reportedly still trying to extinguish the fire but settlers are preventing them from reaching the land, he added.

A report by the Palestinian Authority found that settler violence increased "dramatically" in June 2011, documenting 139 attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank and the destruction of over 3,600 olive trees and vineyards.

Annual figures compiled by Israeli rights group Yesh Din have repeatedly shown that nine out of 10 police investigations about settler crimes fail to lead to a prosecution.