It was the fourth settler assault on the village — some violent — in the past week and comes days after a quarter of the village was left homeless when Israeli authorities demolished their homes.

One video obtained by The Associated Press from a local resident showed a group of about five settlers tampering with the village’s water pipe, the water spilling out onto the ground. In another video, two Israeli soldiers look on as the settlers cluster around the pipe.

Residents of the village see the actions of Israeli forces and settlers over the past week as an overt attempt to push them from their land since they were expelled from the Negev desert in what is now Israel during the 1948 war around the country's creation. The 3 million Palestinians in the West Bank live under seemingly open-ended Israeli military rule.

Since Wednesday, international and Israeli activists have flocked to the village in an attempt to protect the Palestinians there, but it has not stopped near-daily settler onslaughts. A confrontation Monday turned violent, with settlers wielding tear gas and sticks sending six Palestinians to the hospital, residents said.

Severe violence

Israel’s military said masked Israeli settlers attacked its forces who were attempting to evacuate an illegal outpost in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday.

Settlers hurled an explosive at a vehicle belonging to the military body in charge of civilian affairs in the West Bank, leaving its dashboard cracked, the army said.

The military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, said the episode was “a severe, violent incident, that must be denounced and condemned,” calling for the “rioters” to face legal repercussions.

Israeli media reported that the settlers had clashed with Israeli forces late into the night Tuesday, burning tires and hurling stones at the officers.

The military and border police were trying to evacuate the Oz Zion outpost in the northern West Bank, which was established illegally in 2021.

Outposts are small structures built without authorization from the Israeli government, and rights groups say they’re some of the largest drivers of violence toward Palestinians in the occupied territory.

Israel has built well over 100 settlements across the West Bank, some of which resemble fully developed suburbs or small towns. They are home to over 500,000 Jewish settlers who have Israeli citizenship.

The settlement tracking group Peace Now said Wednesday that Israel has approved the largest seizure of land in the occupied West Bank in over three decades.

The international community largely views all settlements as illegal and an obstacle to peace.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, when asked for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ reaction to the latest land seizure, said: “Frankly, it’s a step in the wrong direction – and the direction we want to be heading is to find a negotiated two-state solution.”