Israeli settlers torch Palestinian vehicles and homes in West Bank village

By Dana Karni, Abeer Salman, Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN

Jerusalem (CNN) — Dozens of Israeli settlers set Palestinian vehicles and homes on fire in a village in the occupied West Bank on Monday after Israeli forces tore down settlers’ illegal outpost structures in the area.

Two videos geolocated by CNN show multiple vehicles and a building on fire following the attack in Jab’a, a Palestinian village about 15 kilometers (nine miles) southwest of Bethlehem. Villagers struggled to extinguish the flames, the videos show.

A surveillance camera in Jab’a captured dozens of masked men entering a home and setting fire to vehicles.

The head of the Jab’a village council, Diab Masha’leh, told Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, on Monday that the settlers attacked the village and set fire to three inhabited homes and three vehicles.

He said the villagers were able to extinguish the fires “without any reported injuries” but that “severe material damage was inflicted on the targeted homes and vehicles.”

The attack is the latest in a surge of increasingly brazen settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank. In a rare move, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the violence, saying it came from “a small, extremist group that does not represent the settlers” in the West Bank.

“I intend to deal with this personally and convene the relevant ministers as soon as possible to address this serious phenomenon,” he said in an apparent reference to far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, an ardent proponent of settlements.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that “after the evacuation of the illegal structures,” dozens of Israeli civilians set fire and vandalized homes and vehicles” in Jab’a.

“Israeli security forces at the scene are conducting searches to locate involved individuals. The incident is still ongoing,” according to the statement.

Earlier Monday, violent clashes broke out between Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank after security forces, in an unusual move by the current government, demolished several illegal settler outpost structures near Metzad, according to a joint statement issued by the Israeli military and police. Outposts are illegal under international law and Israeli law.

The clashes left several Border Police officers and “fighters” injured, the statement said. Metzad, also known as Asfar, is an Israeli settlement located in the Gush Etzion bloc in the occupied West Bank.

According to the statement by the military and police, Israeli security forces from several divisions, along with the Civil Administration, began the evacuation and demolition of multiple illegal structures early Monday.

“During the operation, violent riots erupted involving dozens of barricaded individuals and hundreds of rioters, including assaults on security forces through stone-throwing, the hurling of iron rods and other objects, as well as the burning of tires and vehicles,” the joint statement said.

Israeli security forces arrested six suspects during the clashes.

Following the attack by settlers, the IDF said in a statement that it “views violence of any kind with severity and condemns it, as it harms security in the area.” The IDF added: “Violent incidents divert the attention of commanders and soldiers from defense and counterterrorism missions.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz expressed his full support for Israeli forces in a statement Monday. “We will not tolerate attempts by a small, violent, criminal group of anarchistic lawbreakers to take the law into their own hands and tarnish the settler public, and we will not allow them to harm IDF soldiers,” Katz said.

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Tawfeeq reported from Atlanta. CNN’s Zeena Saifi in Jerusalem and Thomas Bordeaux in Atlanta contributed to this report.