Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Khirbet al-Marjam in the occupied West Bank on Thursday night, burning three houses and a number of cars in the latest in a series of raids that have surged during the war in Gaza.
Local residents said settlers stormed through the village, firing live ammunition and hurling teargas bombs at people trying to put out the flames. CCTV footage showed masked individuals entering Palestinians' property, throwing objects around and destroying a security camera.
"They climbed on top of the house and started to throw stones," resident Maysoom Msalam said. "They broke the door and the windows. Then they burnt this door and entered and set fire inside the house."
The Israeli military said troops and police intervened to disperse a group of masked Israelis who had set property on fire. It said there had been an earlier report that Palestinians had attempted to steal a herd of animals belonging to Israelis.
Ghassan Daghlas, governor of the nearby city of Nablus, dismissed suggestions that Palestinians had provoked the attack.
"This is an attack aimed at expelling citizens from their lands by settlers, a project to displace Palestinians from their lands," he told Reuters.
"Through this attack, the settlers are telling Palestinians, either you leave, or we will burn you. The situation is very difficult, the settlers are getting more violent."
The attacks have come as Israeli ministers have been calling openly for a full annexation of the West Bank, a territory captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, which Palestinians see as the core of a future independent state along with Gaza and East Jerusalem.
According to figures from the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA there were at least 1,580 attacks on Palestinians by Israeli settlers that resulted in casualties, property damage or both last year, and another 220 since the start of this year.
In one of the biggest recent attacks, Bedouin families in the Jordan Valley, said bands of Israeli settlers stole hundreds of sheep and goats last week, having first accused the Bedouin of trying to steal their animals.
Most countries consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, a position rejected by Israel, which cites the Jewish people's historical and Biblical connection to the land.
