Israeli colonist militias attack Palestinians, vehicles across the West Bank

SALFIT: Armed Israeli colonist militias Monday evening attacked Palestinians and their vehicles in multiple West Bank districts, according to eyewitnesses and security sources. They said that armed colonist militias, backed by the occupation army, attacked Palestinians and vandalized Palestinian houses and vehicles in Bruqin town, west of the city of Salfit, injuring members of Yasser Shafiq Abdullah's family. The casualties were rushed to Salfit Government Hospital. The assailants, who came from the nearby colony of Bruchin, smashed the windows of a house and a vehicle belonging to Mohammad Shua'aibi, a doctor, spreading panic among his family members, and smashed the windshields of two other vehicles. In Bethlehem, colonists intercepted and hurled stones at a Palestinian vehicle close to the Gush Etzion colonial settlement bloc, inflicting bruises and cuts across the bodies of two passengers, Ali Abdulbaset Fannoun and Omar Masoud Fannoun, and causing damage to the vehicle. The casualties were rushed t o a hospital. Meanwhile, armed colonists, under army protection, attacked several houses in Shi'b al Butum, one of the hamlets making up Masafer Yatta, in the southern Hebron hills, and set a vehicle ablaze. Colonist violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities. Colonist violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees and attacks on vulnerable homes, among others. Over 700,000 Israeli colonists are living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law. Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA