Description

NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Hundreds of settlers stormed the Nablus village of Asira al-Qibliya overnight Sunday, causing damage to Palestinian property.

Witnesses told Ma'an that around midnight more than 200 settlers from the notorious Yitzhar settlement entered the village and threw rocks at Palestinian homes.

Local resident Ibrahim Makhlouf said that the settlers smashed the windows of a bus and tried to set it on fire.

“They were armed and wearing black uniform as if it was an organized militia,” he told Ma'an.

The attackers smashed the windows of three other houses belonging to Basim Salih, Jamil Abdullah and Khalil Mahmoud Salih, Makhlouf added.

Settler-related incidents resulting in Palestinian injuries and damage to property are up more than 50 percent this year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which documents violence in the Palestinian territories.

Last week, a mosque was set on fire by settlers in the West Bank village of Bruqin, near Salfit, local officials said.

A report released by The Palestinian Agricultural Relief Committees found that in October, over 53 percent of settler attacks had taken place in the Nablus district.