An extremist settler group attempted, on Thursday at night, to burn a Palestinian resident while he was present in a caravan in Huwwara village, south of the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli police and security sources reported on Friday.
The settlers set the caravan on fire while knowing that a Palestinian guard in inside it after he barricaded himself there in an attempt to avoid them. He was injured in his face.
After the caravan was set on fire, the guard had to step out and was attacked by the settlers. Later on, the guard ran to a nearby Israeli military checkpoint to report the incident.
According to Israeli police sources, the guard told soldiers stationed at the checkpoint that he saw five settlers fleeing towards the Bracha illegal settlement outpost, Near Nablus, after the attack took place.
The sources added that the settlers knew that the guard was in the caravan when they set it on fire.
An Israeli military source reported that troops know where the attackers set out from, and that they planned to force the Palestinian resident out of the area, and chase them.
An Israeli military tracker confirmed Friday that he identified a trail of the attackers’ footprints leading to the Bracha outpost.
The attack is not the first against the same area which is known for its high tensions between the extremist settlers and the Palestinian residents, the settlers install their outpost on Palestinian lands they take by force.
On Thursday at night, settlers sneaked into Huwwara and burnt several Palestinian caravans at a Palestinian stone factory.
Three months ago, former Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz, signed an evacuation order for the Bracha illegal settlement outpost, but the order was not implemented.
Sources within the Israeli government said that a speedy evacuation of the illegal outpost “is needed, and would signal to the Yesha Council of Settlements that the actions of crazy extremists cannot be backed up by police silence”.
