Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank burned farmland and chanted racist slogans in a village near Ramallah, according to media reports, as arson attacks and deadly Israeli military raids intensified in recent days.
The attacks come as Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s domestic security agency Shin Bet (Shabak), on Friday urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to give the green light to a major military offensive in the occupied territory.
The Palestinian Wafa news agency, citing witnesses, reported Friday that a group of settlers attacked the farm on the outskirts of Khirbet Abu Falah, where they set fire to a shed and left racist graffiti in Hebrew on the walls. .
Footage published online by the Quds News Network shows the alleged arson attack.
Palestinian civil defense teams were deployed to put out the fire. No injuries were reported in Thursday evening’s attack.
Wafa reported that Khirbet Abu Falah, as well as the town of Turmus Aya and the village of al-Mughayyir, all located northeast of Ramallah, have been subject to repeated raids by Israeli settlers, who allegedly carried out under the protection of Israeli soldiers.
Earlier, Israeli settlers also set fire to a Palestinian vehicle in the village of Wadi Rahhal, south of Bethlehem, according to Al Quds Today.
The most recent Israeli settler attacks came after Palestinian gunmen shot dead three Israeli settlers near the illegal settlement of Kedumim on Monday.
During the first week of 2025, Israeli settler attacks injured at least 18 Palestinians across the occupied territory, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
During the same period, at least three Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli forces, while three other Palestinians, including a child, were killed in controversial circumstances, OCHA reported.
The data does not include three other Palestinians, including two children, who were killed Wednesday in an Israeli drone attack in the town of Tammun, also in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli forces continued to carry out raids in the occupied West Bank on Friday, firing grenades and arresting several Palestinians.
In Qabatiya, south of Jenin, Israeli forces, disguised as civilians, surrounded a house and bombarded it with projectiles, according to Wafa citing residents of the area.
No casualties were immediately reported.
Since the start of 2025, more than 50 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli house demolitions in the occupied West Bank, according to OCHA.
Overnight, several Israeli raids were also reported in Nablus and several young Palestinians were arrested.
Footage posted on Telegram and verified by Tel Aviv Tribune’s Sanad agency shows the moment Israeli forces lined up and arrested dozens of young men in an assault on the town of Deir Istiya, northwest of Salfit .
Israeli forces also attacked the town of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem; the town of Nilin, west of Ramallah; the villages of Hajjah and Baqat al-Hatab, east of Qalqilya; and the Jalazone refugee camp, a frequent target of Israeli military operations.
The Shin Bet Bar was quoted as saying in a Channel 12 report on Friday that Israel should learn lessons from the October 7 Hamas attack and launch a major offensive in the occupied West Bank.
“A vast, reality-changing movement must be launched to collapse and eliminate the phenomenon of armed Palestinian battalions… to ensure our freedom of operation there.” »
