NABLUS, Palestine

Jewish settlers on Friday set fire to several acres of Palestinian farmland in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian official.

“A group of settlers from the Yitzhar settlement near the village of Asira al-Qibliya south of Nablus torched Palestinian agricultural land sown with grain and olive trees,” Ghassan Douglas, a Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) official, told Anadolu Agency.

Confrontations erupted between the settlers and local residents, after which the Israeli army intervened, he said.

Palestinian towns and villages in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are subject to frequent assaults and acts of vandalism by Jewish settlers.

According to estimates, 650,000 Jewish settlers currently live on 164 settlements built illegally across the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), which remains “occupied territory” under international law.