Dozens of Israeli settlers launched an arson attack on an agricultural area in the occupied West Bank Tuesday evening, according to Palestinian activists in the area, marking the latest such attack in what has been a surge of settler violence.
The attack took place in the town of Beit Lid east of Tulkarm, damaging the Deir Sharaf Bedouin village and Al-Juneidi dairy factory, videos show and residents told CNN.
Footage obtained by CNN shows smoke engulfing the area, with Palestinian women heard shouting in the background, and men carrying extinguishers and water buckets scrambling to put out the fires.
Videos show torched trucks, tents and metal sheds, and smashed car windows.
Residents said Palestinian civil defense and firefighters arrived at the scene about an hour after the fires started.
Another video filmed by a Palestinian resident shows the settlers coming down a hill toward the Bedouin village.
This attack is the latest in a surge of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, which have been taking place on a near-daily basis since mid-October. A United Nations report released Friday alleges that Israeli settlers launched at least 264 attacks in October, the largest number since the UN began tracking incidents in 2006, with this year’s olive harvest season marred by extreme violence.
Israeli off-duty officer Yuval Ben Ari was beaten by dozens of settlers on the occupied West Bank, while he was assisting Palestinians in harvesting olives. He was hospitalized and received four stitches.
CCTV footage of the arson attack obtained by CNN then shows the settlers attacking the dairy factory, brandishing clubs and setting fire to parked vehicles. One of the vehicles – a cargo truck bearing the dairy factory’s logo – appears to be completely torched, with a thick cloud of black smoke rising from it.
Gilad Kariv, an Israeli lawmaker from the left-wing Democrats party, decried the settler attack on X. “Their goal is to ignite a third intifada, that will bring the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) to operate in a way reminiscent of the operation in Gaza. This move will cost the lives of hundreds of Israel soldiers and civilians and thousands of Palestinians,” he said.
The IDF said it dispatched its soldiers to the area following “a report of dozens of masked Israeli civilians who attacked Palestinians and set fire to property in the area.”
“During the incident, four Palestinians were injured and evacuated for medical treatment. Security forces operated to disperse the confrontation using riot dispersal means and apprehended several Israeli civilians,” the IDF said in a statement. The settlers also attacked the soldiers and damaged an Israeli military vehicle, the IDF said.
The Israel Police said it had arrested four Israeli “suspects” and transferred them for questioning, following the “extreme violence.”
“Police investigators, together with security forces, are currently collecting evidence at the scene, including documentation, witness statements and forensic findings,” it added.
The arson attack is the latest in what has become an increasingly violent period in the West Bank during the olive harvest.
On Saturday, at least 10 people were injured in an attack on the village of Beita while Palestinian farmers were harvesting olives, including three medics, four journalists and three activists, according to Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak who was present and himself injured.
Activist Oded Yedaya, an Israeli photographer and administrator of the Minshar School of Art in Tel Aviv, had to be hospitalized after he was badly beaten, according to Pollak. Images obtained by CNN show Yedaya’s entire face and torso bloodied, with a white cloth wrapped around his head.
Pollak told CNN Yedaya suffered fractures to the cheekbone and jaw.
The IDF told CNN in a statement Saturday that they were aware of the incident, and had dispatched soldiers to an area around Evyatar, an Israeli outpost nearby “following a report of a confrontation between Israeli civilians and Palestinians.”
Illegal settlers, covering their faces with masks, attack Palestinian farmers, journalists and foreign activists with sticks and stones in Beita town of Nablus, West Bank on Saturday. – Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu/Getty Images
In the nearby village of Burin, Israeli and foreign activists were injured including off-duty Israeli army reservist Yuval Ben Ari.
In a phone interview with CNN, Ben Ari said seeing videos of Palestinians being “brutally beaten” by settlers every day compelled him to go out and support them.
“I think it’s important for Israelis to get out of bed and out of the house and do real activism instead of just liking content on Facebook or retweeting an article,” he said.
He was standing alongside seven Israeli activists on a Palestinian farm picking olives early Saturday morning, when he saw at least 20 masked settlers come down the hill brandishing clubs and bats.
He said he knew they were about to “terrorize the entire area.”
“I stood in front of them and said, ‘I ask you not to do it. You don’t want to do it,’” he said, before revealing to them that he was a reservist. But that didn’t stop the attack, he said, and he suffered a head injury and minor concussion that required hospitalization.
“I was soaking blood and in pain. But after I managed to stand up, the settlers shouted at me saying, ‘Don’t ever come here again. Don’t betray your own people.’”
In response to a query from CNN, the IDF said in a statement that its soldiers “were dispatched to the area of Burin, following a report of rock-hurling at an Israeli vehicle.”
“Both Israeli and Palestinian civilians were injured and evacuated to receive medical treatment…The IDF condemns any act of violence and will continue to operate to maintain security and order in the area.” the statement continued.
Ben Ari told CNN the soldiers who arrived at the scene did not stop the attack, an accusation many Palestinians and activists have voiced in other incidents as well.
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