Settlers torch Palestinian land near Nablus

Settlers torched Palestinian farm land near Nablus, local residents said.

2 min read

16 June, 2019

Palestinians protest near Nablus in the occupied West Bank (Getty)

Settlers from the settlement of Yitzhar, located on Palestinian land south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, torched agricultural land in the nearby village of Uref according to residents.

Witnesses told The New Arab that a group of settlers set fire to the land on the outskirts of the village which then spread to a larger area.

Asad Shehadeh, a resident of Uref, told The New Arab that civil defense crews in the south of Nablus managed to control the fire which did not result in casualties, but crops were damanged.

Shehadeh pointed out that the people of Uref responded to calls for help that were launched through loudspeakers from the mosques, which prevented the situation from worsening.

During campaigning for the first general election in April, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex West Bank Jewish settlements, a move long supported by nearly all lawmakers in his alliance of right-wing and religious parties.

Earlier, in February, Netanyahu told lawmakers he had been discussing with Washington a plan that would effectively annex settlements.

In a rare public show of disunity between the close allies, the White House then flatly denied any such discussion.

Following persistent expansion of the settlements by successive Netanyahu governments, more than 600,000 Jewish settlers now live in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, among some three million Palestinians.