Alwaght- An Israeli settler ran over and wounded a middle-aged Palestinian woman near the occupied West Bank city of Nablus as settlers’ attacks against Palestinians have alarmingly escalated in recent months.
The incident occurred in the al-Aqrabaniya town east of Nablus on Thursday, when an Israeli settler ran over 48-year-old Shafiqa Fayez Bisharat, the Palestinian Information Center quoted Ghassan Daghlas, who monitors Israeli settlement activities in the northern West Bank, as saying on Friday.
The wounded Palestinian woman was taken to hospital for due treatment, he added.
Daghlas also stressed in his statement that “the settler deliberately ran over a flock of sheep on the road and chased citizens”, warning against “this dangerous behavior against citizens by settlers and their vehicles.”
Earlier on Thursday, 25-year-old Palestinian man, Mustafa Yassin Filna, was killed after an Israeli settler ran him over when the victim, from the village of Safa west of Ramallah, was on his way to work within the so- called Green Line, the report added.
There have been scores of “hit and run” incidents targeting Palestinians in different parts of the occupied West Bank, with most of them largely going uninvestigated by Israeli authorities. Some of such events have even resulted in fatalities.
Last month, 55-year-old Palestinian woman, Ghadeer Anis Masalma, lost her life after an Israeli settler ran over her at the entrance to the town of Sinjil, which lies northeast of Ramallah.
A Palestinian boy, identified as Abdul-Rahim al-Jabari, was also injured in September after an Israeli settler ran him over near the illegal Israeli settlement of Kiryat Arba.
In December, the Palestinian NGOs Network, which includes 145 organizations, demanded in a statement that the UN take urgent measures to provide international protection for Palestinians amid escalated settler attacks, especially in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.
The groups described the escalated settler violence as part of Israeli attempts to “forcibly deport” the Palestinians, noting that the attacks amount to “war crimes.”
The attacks come as part of “an open and systematic war,” and “are not individual” or separate from Israel’s policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied territories, the statement further said.
More than 600,000 Israelis live in over 230 settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem al-Quds. All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.
According to human rights groups, acts of violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the occupied West Bank.
