Army-backed Israeli settlers Thursday evening attacked Jalud village, south of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, according to local sources. They said that scores of Jewish supremacist settlers, under army protection, descended upon the outskirts of village and attacked a number of civilian houses, hurling stones towards them as the villagers attempted to confront them and defend their property. The gun-toting soldiers unleashed barrages of fire towards the villagers, injuring one by rubber-coated steel bullets in the head and two others by bullet shrapnel. Three other villagers sustained injuries in the stone-pelting at the hands of the settlers and dozens others suffered excessive tear gas suffocation. Local mosques’ loudspeakers called residents from neighboring villages to help confront the pogrom-like attack. Settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities. Settler violence includes property and mosque arsons, stone-throwing, uprooting of crops and olive trees, attacks on vulnerable homes, among others. There are over 700,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Source: En – Palestine news & Information Agency – WAFA