Israeli settler violence in West Bank escalates with live fire, arson
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Settlers, backed by Israeli forces, rampage through the West Bank, torching property, assaulting civilians, and pushing illegal expansionist efforts.
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A resident inspects the site of a burnt house and torched vehicles following a spree of violent rampage by Israeli settlers overnight in the West Bank town of Silwad, east of Ramallah, Thursday, July 31, 2025. (AP)
Israeli settlers launched a violent wave of attacks across the West Bank overnight, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, burning Palestinian property, shooting live rounds that left several wounded, and brutally assaulting civilians.
#متداول | هجوم عصابات المستوطنين على منازل المواطنين في قرية عطارة شمال رام الله pic.twitter.com/RqsJA49NO6
— قناة فلسطين اليوم (@Paltodaytv) August 14, 2025
Simultaneously, Israeli occupation forces carried out mass arrests.
In the town of Atara, northwest of Ramallah, settlers set fire to four vehicles and hurled Molotov cocktails at a house in the eastern part of the town, causing property damage, while also scrawling racist graffiti on walls, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA. Firefighting crews worked to extinguish the flames, and Israeli occupation forces moved in to secure the area and protect the settlers.
The attack comes after Israeli settlers once again set up colonial outpost tents on the slopes of Khirbet Tarafin Mountain near the entrance to the town of Atara, in an attempt to seize roughly 2,000 dunams of land, an area recognized as an archaeological site, even though the occupation forces have demolished these structures four times before.
Three Palestinians were wounded by live fire in al-Mazra'a al-Sharqiya, east of Ramallah, during a settler assault on the al-Burj area, amid weeks of intensified attacks linked to efforts to expand illegal settlement outposts onto Palestinian land.
IOF launch wide-scale raids
Israeli occupation forces also raided the village of al-Asakira east of Beit Lahm, storming the home of Fadi Mahmoud al-Asakira and ransacking its contents without making arrests, while simultaneously invading the Askar refugee camp east of Nablus.
من اقتحام الاحتلال لمخيم عسكر شرق نابلس. pic.twitter.com/AkjfnAswwY
— شبكة قدس الإخبارية (@qudsn) August 15, 2025
The IOF also stormed Ibn Sina Hospital in Jenin while simultaneously surrounding a nearby building, subsequently arresting two young men, Mousa Turkman and Abdullah Sawafta, from inside the besieged structure adjacent to the medical facility.
This escalation comes as Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that "the West Bank is part of Israel by divine promise," while expressing confidence that "a historic announcement regarding sovereignty over the territory" is imminent.
The far-right extremist minister recently approved the advancement of the E1 settlement plan, yet another occupation project that would effectively sever the occupied east al-Quds from the rest of the occupied West Bank.
Smotrich declared that the plan would effectively eliminate any prospect of a Palestinian state, calling it the "final nail in the coffin" for Palestinian sovereignty, while confirming that the proposals had been developed in full coordination with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and what he referred to as "our allies in the United States."
