Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Village, Residents Say

 Palestinians stand next to a damaged car, following an Israeli settlers' attack, near Duma in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians stand next to a damaged car, following an Israeli settlers' attack, near Duma in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
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Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Village, Residents Say

 Palestinians stand next to a damaged car, following an Israeli settlers' attack, near Duma in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians stand next to a damaged car, following an Israeli settlers' attack, near Duma in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 14, 2025. (Reuters)

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.



Israeli Airstrike Kills Three in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
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Israeli Airstrike Kills Three in Gaza

FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A Palestinian man walks near rubble of houses destroyed during the Israeli offensive, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 13, 2025. REUTERS/Hatem Khaled/File Photo

An Israeli airstrike killed three Palestinian men in the Gaza Strip, medics said on Monday, and there was no sign of progress at renewed ceasefire talks.
Medics said the three men were killed near Bureij camp in the center of the devastated Palestinian enclave by a missile fired from a drone. According to Reuters, Israel's military did not immediately comment.
In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, medics said three people were wounded in another airstrike. Rafah residents have reported frequent fire by Israeli forces deployed in areas adjacent to the border inside the city boundaries.
The persistent bloodshed underscores the fragility of a three-stage ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas mediated by Qatar, Egypt, and the United States.
Israel wants to extend the ceasefire's first phase, a proposal backed by US envoy Steve Witkoff. Hamas says it will resume freeing hostages only under the second phase that was due to begin on March 2.
"Hamas has complied fully with the agreement, while the occupation (Israel) didn't comply with some clauses. It (Israel) seeks to foil the agreement and impose new conditions," Hamas spokesperson Abdel-Latif Al-Qanoua said on Monday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Saturday negotiators had been instructed to be ready to continue talks based on the mediators' response to a US proposal for the release of 11 living hostages and half of the dead captives.
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release American-Israeli soldier Edan Alexander and four bodies of the hostages if Israel agreed to begin talks immediately on implementing the second phase of the agreement. Israel accused Hamas of waging "psychological warfare" on the families of hostages.