Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian fields in WB

Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian fields in WB
Tue Jul 2, 2013 10:26:47

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have torched Palestinian fields in the village of Burin south of Nablus, a Palestinian Authority official says.

Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors settlements in the northern West Bank, said residents of Bracha and Yitzhar settlements set fire to Palestinian fields, leading to clashes with locals, Ma’an news agency reported Monday.

He said Israeli soldiers intervened and fired tear gas and plastic-coated bullets at Palestinian residents and their homes.

Earlier Sunday, settlers from Yitzhar burned Palestinian olive groves in Einabus, near Burin, destroying 200 olive trees, Daghlas said.

Israeli settlers, mostly armed, regularly attack Palestinian villages and farms and set fire to their mosques, olive groves and other properties in the occupied West Bank under the so-called “price tag” policy. However, the Tel Aviv regime rarely detains the assailants.

The extremists say the “price tag” attacks are carried out against any Israeli policy “to reduce the presence of settlers and settlements on occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).”

Israeli settlements are illegal under the international law as the occupied territories were seized by Israel in the 1967 war, and are thus subject to the Geneva Convention, which forbids construction on occupied lands.

However, more than half a million Israelis live in over 120 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem).

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