Continuing their rampage of terror and violence against the Palestinian people, armed Israeli settlers Thursday evening launched a renewed attack on Turmusayya town, northeast of the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah, according to a local official. The town mayor Lafi Adeeb said that four armed Jewish supremacist settlers stormed the outskirts of the western outskirts of the town, making their way through the main entrance. The town residents, who were on alert, confronted the settlers and prevented them from further advancing towards the residential area, prompting them to open fire in the air. Local sources added that a mob of scores of settler attacked two Palestinians who were on their way back home, northeast of Ramallah city, inflicting bruises and cuts across their bodies. The casualties, a resident of Tuqu town, east of Bethlehem, and a resident of Asira al-Qibliya village, southwest of Nablus, were rushed to a hospital in Ramallah, where medics described their condition as light. On Wednesday afternoon, scores of fundamentalist settlers, under army protection, attacked Turmusayya, killing 27-year-old Omar Ketin and torching homes, vehicles and agricultural land. The attack came around lunchtime after a difficult night for Palestinians near Nablus, whose villages and towns were similarly attacked by Israeli settlers, wounding several people. In an interview with the Middle East Eye, the town mayor Adeeb said more than 400 armed Jewish settlers, coming from the nearby colonial settlement of Shilo established on the town’s lands, attacked the Palestinian community and set fire to around 30 houses and 60 vehicles. Adeeb elaborated that he and other residents helped evacuate people from burning buildings, including children, women and the elderly, dozens of who were choking on the smoke. Israeli soldiers sealed off the entrances to the town, making it difficult for fire engines and ambulances to arrive, forcing residents had to transport the wounded to medical centres using their own vehicles. Turmusaya is located along the main road connecting the cities of Ramallah and Nablus. Around 4,000 people live in the town, with 14,000 other Palestinians from Turmusaya living abroad, primarily in the United States. Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities. Settler violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others. There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA