An increase in Israeli settlers’ aggression against Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank compared to recent years, Alray reported.
The Israeli paper Haaretz published data from Israeli security institutions that documented 256 cases of Israeli settlers’ aggression against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli security services expressed their concerns regarding the increased level of settler violence, and the audacity of Israeli officials for destroying property and spraying racist slogans on the walls (activities known as “paying the price tag”).
Israeli security sources warned that the increase in settler violence during the last two weeks, and the increase in the destruction of Palestinian properties, must remind us of the incidents that preceded the arson attack against the Palestinian Dawabshe family in Douma village in 2015.
The security services noted that the 160 incidents of puncturing tires of Palestinian vehicles in the Shuafat neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem last Sunday, is a clear evidence to Israeli boldness in the destruction of Palestinian properties.
Security services explained that puncturing tires occurred in five areas of the neighborhood, which means a greater number of settlers participated in the aggression.
It was also noted that Israeli settler’s leadership did not denounce the attacks, on the contrary, they encourage the settlers act with violence, with the goal of forcing the Palestinians to leave .
Many slogans and sabotage of property occurred in the second half of 2019
Israeli security sources estimated that those responsible for spraying slogans and destroying property are dozens of young settlers, most between 14 and 19 years old.
They say that they come from all over “Israel” once they have dropped out schools, and that many of them remain in settlement sites in the West Bank without parental authority.
Sources of the Israeli security services estimated that a quarter of the cases that were identified as “violent events” originated from Yitzhar settlement, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
These sources have referred to Yitzhar as the beating heart of the extreme Israeli right, and the source of the perpetrators of many violent operations against Palestinians in the West Bank and the occupied territories in 1948.
Edited for IMEMC: Ali Salam
