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NABLUS (Ma'an) -- A Palestinian man sustained bruises on Saturday evening after dozens of Israeli settlers raided the town of Huwwara south of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank and hurled stones at his vehicle.

A local official who monitors settlement-related activities in the northern West Bank, Ghassan Daghlas, told Ma'an that the settlers came from the illegal Yitzhar settlement and stormed the western neighborhood of Huwwara and threw stones at Salim Salemeh's car.

Daghlas added that the settlers also started to attack Palestinian homes in the neighborhood, but residents fought them back and forced them to leave the area.

Last week, Israeli settlers injured a Palestinian man and damaged ten vehicles while throwing stones at Palestinian vehicles on the main road between Ramallah and Nablus.

The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.

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, with recent announcements of settlement expansion provoking condemnation from the international community.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were a total of 221 reported settler attacks against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in 2015, and 107 in 2016.

The majority of settler attacks committed against Palestinians are met with impunity, with Israelis rarely facing consequences for such attacks.
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