Israeli settlers have reportedly injured a Palestinian man while throwing stones at Palestinian vehicles traveling on the main road between the occupied West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus, on Monday afternoon, local sources said.
Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who monitors settlement activity in the northern West Bank, told Ma’an News Agency that Nahed Qabaha was wounded when Israeli settlers threw stones at his minibus, near the village of al-Sawiya. Nahed was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Daghlas added that ten vehicles were damaged by the stones.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that the case fell under Israeli police jurisdiction. However, Israeli police made no mention of the incident.
The Palestinian government has no jurisdiction over Israelis in the West Bank, and violent acts carried out by Israeli settlers often occur in the presence of Israeli military forces who rarely act to protect Palestinian residents.
Between 500,000 and 600,000 Israelis live in “Jewish-only” settlements across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank in violation of international law, with recent announcements of settlement expansion provoking condemnation from the international community.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), there were a total of 221 reported settler attacks against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem in 2015, and 107 in 2016.
The majority of settler attacks committed against Palestinians are met with impunity, with Israelis rarely facing consequences for such attacks.
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