Masked illegal Israeli settlers hurled stones and torched dairy trucks, farmland and Bedouin structures, injuring four people on Tuesday in the latest surge of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military and a Palestinian official said.
The army said soldiers rushed to Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf after dozens of masked Israeli civilians attacked Palestinians and set fire to property.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated three people who had been beaten with sticks and stones. Israeli police said four Israeli suspects were arrested and held for questioning.
On Friday, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said illegal settlers staged at least 264 attacks on Palestinians in October — the highest monthly tally since the UN began tracking incidents in 2006.
Palestinian official Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, said settlers set fire to the four trucks belonging to the Junaidi dairy, agricultural areas and tin rooms and tents of Bedouin families, while hurling stones at residents.
Later, near the Baron Industrial Zone, where some of the masked settlers had regrouped, they attacked soldiers and damaged a military vehicle, the army said.
The United Nations regards the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank as illegal under international law.
Around half a million Israeli settlers live in the occupied West Bank.
