Photo credit:Thisnis Beirut
Israel’s police and military said that security forces arrested several Israeli settlers after violent clashes near the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, during which Palestinians were injured and property was destroyed.
The Japan Times reports the military as saying it dispatched troops after “masked Israeli civilians attacked Palestinians and set fire to property in the area.
“Security forces operated to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means and apprehended several Israeli civilians.”
It added that four injured Palestinians were evacuated for medical treatment.
Israel’s police said four suspects were arrested, “following the violent incident that occurred earlier today in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf,” in the north of the West Bank.
The mayor of Beit Lid, Hussein Hammadi, said that around 200 Israeli settlers came down from the hills towards his village, before splitting into two groups. He said, “One attacked the Bedouin community located on a slope along the road, while the other climbed the nearby hill where the Juneidi Dairy factory is located.”
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967, and more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Palestinian territory.
A minority of these Israelis engage in violence against Palestinians, who complain that Israeli forces usually do not arrest settlers.
All settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law.
