Israeli Settlers Intensify Attacks Across Occupied West Bank, Damaging Water and Electricity

Israeli settlers intensified attacks across the occupied West Bank on Friday, damaging essential supplies including water springs, electricity lines, and greenhouses while seizing or destroying Palestinian homes, according to Al Jazeera and Wafa.

“Israeli settlers have attacked several parts of the occupied West Bank, seizing or destroying Palestinian homes and damaging essential supplies like water springs, electricity lines, and greenhouses, as they intensify their assaults and land seizures in recent weeks”

Al Jazeera

In the village of al-Maniya southeast of Bethlehem, Israeli settlers damaged the main electricity line supplying the community, cutting power and causing fear and panic among residents, and it was the second such incident in the village this week, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.

Al Jazeera

Hours later, Wafa reported that Israeli settlers vandalised agricultural greenhouses near the Shufa military checkpoint southeast of Tulkarem by tearing the nets protecting the greenhouses, damaging agricultural facilities owned by a family from the village of Shufa.

Wafa also reported that Israeli settlers took control of Ein Rawabi spring in the northeast of Jerusalem after vandalising the site, and the Jerusalem Governorate said the spring is the only water source for local shepherds and their livestock of about 1,300 sheep.

In Jalud village, the Reuters news agency reported that Israeli settlers seized the property of Mohammad Salameh while he was building a home for his recently engaged son, and Salameh said, “If there is law and order, then they [Israeli settlers] will leave.”

Israeli settlers injured at least five Palestinians in two separate attacks in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to Wafa news agency as cited by Middle East Eye.

Middle East Eye reported that three members of a family were assaulted in the Wadi al-Zarqa nature reserve near the village of Beitillu, northwest of Ramallah, and that the attack left one with a broken arm while settlers also stole their mobile phones.

Al-Jazeera Net

In a separate incident near al-Khan al-Ahmar east of East Jerusalem, the Jerusalem Governorate said a settler on a motorbike rammed into two Palestinians causing bruising, and another settler pepper-sprayed several other villagers.

The Jerusalem Governorate said Israeli forces later entered the village and detained four Palestinians after they tried to fend off the attack, while Middle East Eye described the incidents as two separate attacks reported by Wafa.

In a different framing, The Times of Israel said footage circulated online showed dozens of settlers throwing stones near the village of Abu Falah, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) north of Ramallah, and it cited Wafa asserting that settlers assaulted locals and foreign activists on the road linking Abu Falah and nearby Turmus Ayya, preventing them from reaching their land.

The attacks came as Israeli authorities advanced plans to establish 13 new settlement outposts, with the Palestinian News Network saying the attacks were reported in the Ramallah, Bethlehem, Jerusalem and Tulkarm governorates.

“Several Palestinians and foreign solidarity activists were injured in an attack by Israeli occupiers near Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank on Friday, according to an Anadolu correspondent”

Anadolu Ajansı

The Palestinian News Network reported that the Jerusalem Governorate warned of the implications of an Israeli Security Cabinet decision approving plans to establish 13 new settlement outposts within the Binyamin Regional Council in the occupied West Bank.

In the same reporting, the Jerusalem Governorate said the seizure of Ain Rawabi spring poses a direct threat to the livelihoods of dozens of Bedouin families and forms part of broader efforts to deprive Palestinian communities of grazing land and water resources.

The Palestinian News Network also described how settlers vandalized agricultural greenhouses in the Bariya area near the Shufa military checkpoint southeast of Tulkarm by tearing protective netting, causing damage to agricultural facilities owned by the Ismail family from the village of Shufa.

In parallel, Al Jazeera said the seizure of Ein Rawabi spring relied upon by Bedouin communities in the area, and it quoted the Jerusalem Governorate warning that the seizure poses a direct threat to the livelihoods of dozens of Bedouin families.