A man stands beside charred vehicles at the scene of an alleged attack by Israeli settlers in a residential area on the outskirts of Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on November 4, 2024. — AFP
Jewish settlers reportedly set fire to 20 cars during an assault on Palestinian property near Ramallah on Monday, according to local residents. This incident marks one of the most brazen raids in the area, which serves as the Palestinian government's headquarters in the occupied West Bank.
Approximately a dozen attackers, masked and armed with petrol bombs, targeted the Al Bireh area, adjacent to Ramallah, around 3am. They managed to torch the cars within minutes, residents said. Ihab Al Zaben, a resident, recounted how he shouted at the settlers, but they continued to burn the vehicles. "When we tried to put out the fire, they started shooting at us," he said. The front of a residential building was left scorched from the fires that engulfed the parked cars.
The Israeli police and Shin Bet security agency launched an investigation after receiving reports of several Palestinian cars being burned. International condemnation has followed settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank, leading to sanctions by some governments, particularly the United States, which has called on Israel to take stronger measures to prevent such attacks.
The Palestinian Authority, headquartered in Ramallah, denounced "the brutal attack by settler militias." Its Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for "comprehensive sanctions targeting the entire settler-colonial system." Hamas official Abdul Rahman Shadid described the attack as an escalation by settlers and urged "escalating the confrontation and confronting these crimes."
Israel has maintained settlements in the West Bank since capturing it during the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians argue that these settlements undermine the possibility of establishing a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Settler violence had been increasing before the outbreak of the Gaza war and has intensified since the conflict began over a year ago. In a recent interview with Reuters, a settler community leader expressed confidence that if Donald Trump wins the US presidential election, he will lift sanctions seen as illegitimate by the settlers.
Most countries consider the settlements illegal under international law. In 2019, the Trump administration reversed the long-held US stance that the settlements are illegal, a position later reinstated by President Joe Biden.
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