File - Israeli security forces confront demonstrators raising Palestinian flags near the West Bank settlement of Mitzpe Yair in the southern district of Hebron. AFP
A group of armed settlers from the “Asfar” settlement and a recently established outpost in the Jorat Al-Kheil area carried out a stone-throwing attack targeting homes and property in the Al-Rabia area of Sa’ir, according to WAFA.
During the assault, the infant, Mayar Al-Shalalda (eight months), sustained injuries to her face and head. The attack also caused significant damage to homes and other civilian property.
In November, settlers from the same settlement attacked residents in the Wadi Sa’ir area, injuring several people and setting fire to a house and two vehicles.
On 1 October, settlers cut down approximately 400 productive olive and almond trees and set fire to dozens of dunams of Palestinian land.
These assaults form part of a series of ongoing attacks aimed at forcibly displacing residents from their land to facilitate settlement expansion.
In a related development, Israeli occupation forces demolished a children’s playground in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah. Local sources said the troops raided the village and carried out the demolition under the pretext of construction without a permit.
Israeli forces also uprooted dozens of olive trees in the northwestern area of Deir Ballut, west of Salfit governorate.
The assaults coincided with a series of Israeli army raids across several West Bank cities, during which dozens of Palestinians were arrested, including a woman.
The raids took place in Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jericho, and Qalqilya and were accompanied by house searches and the destruction of household contents.
Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, attacks by the Israeli forces and settlers across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, have killed at least 1,103 Palestinians, injured nearly 11,000 others, and led to the arrest of more than 21,000 people, according to Palestinian figures.
On Wednesday, 14 countries, including France, Britain, Canada and Japan, condemned Israel's recent approval of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, reaffirming their clear opposition to any form of annexation and to the expansion of settlement policies.
More than 750,000 Israeli settlers now live among three million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, according to UN figures.
In July 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territories is unlawful and called on Israel to bring the occupation to an end.
The court cited settlement construction and expansion, annexation measures, and discriminatory policies against Palestinians as key violations.
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