Palestinians injured as settler violence rages across West Bank
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Israeli settlers are accompanied by occupation troops as they target Palestinians with live bullets and tear gas canisters.
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Israeli occupation forces protect Israeli settlers outside Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (AP)
Dozens of Palestinians have been injured as illegal Israeli settlers continue to wreak havoc across the occupied West Bank, protected by Israeli occupation forces.
According to Palestine's official WAFA news agency on Friday, one Palestinian was shot and many others suffocated as IOF-backed settlers attempted to invade the city of Dayr Dibwan, east of Ramallah. The agency reported that the settlers "set fire at the [Dayr Dibwan's] entrance, but local youths, who were on alert, courageously confronted them, forcing them to retreat."
The casualties occurred as Israeli troops accompanied by the aggressors targeted Palestinians with live bullets and tear gas canisters. "Elsewhere in Ramallah district, a few dozen settlers, under army protection, gathered at the western entrance of Beitin village, close to Al-Bireh city, and pelted Palestinian vehicles passing nearby with stones, damaging them," the agency added.
Read next: IOF demolish mosque in occupied West Bank
Another group of settlers threw stones at Palestinian-owned vehicles in the Al-Fahs neighborhood, south of al-Khalil in the southern West Bank, shattering their windshields.
The developments came a day after a group of settlers stormed the village of Urif south of the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank. The attackers then forced their way into a local mosque and vandalized it before ripping the pages of a copy of the Holy Qur'an and throwing it on the street. The act of desecration has prompted far-and-wide outrage across the Muslim world.
More than a dozen Palestinians were also martyred in violence staged either by the Israeli military or armed Israeli settlers so far this week. They include a Palestinian male, who was martyred on Wednesday when hundreds of the settlers went on a rampage across the village of Turmus Ayya in the north-central West Bank.
More than 700,000 Israelis live in 279 illegal settlements built across the occupied West Bank since 'Tel Aviv's' occupation of the territory in 1967.
Read next: IOF injures Palestinians in anti-settlement rallies in West Bank
'Eli' operation is a tragic reminder: Israeli media
Two days ago, Israeli media described the "Eli" operation as being a tragic reminder of the grave danger that Israelis who choose to settle in the occupied territory are subjected to. "The government's efforts will not change the difficult and dangerous reality, in which there is daily friction between the army forces and the Israelis and the Palestinians aspiring for liberation," Haaretz wrote.
"The magnitude of the threat is not only exemplified in the scale of the attacks that were carried out but also in the large number of attacks that were thwarted," considering that this reality "is indicative of a continuous state of war."
"It would be delusional to think that a large-scale military operation, similar to Operation Defensive Shield, could bring about calm and prevent any threats," the newspaper article reads.
"Enraged Palestinians under occupation and driven by revenge will find nothing but violence to express these feelings."
