JERUSALEM: Israeli settlers attacked the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh in the occupied West Bank, torching cars and spray-painting threatening graffiti, the Palestinian Authority said Monday.
“Israeli colonial settlers launched a terror attack tonight on the Christian Palestinian village of Taybeh (Ramallah), setting fire to Palestinian vehicles and spray-painting racist threats in Hebrew on homes and property,” the Ramallah-based authority wrote on X.
A Taybeh resident, speaking anonymously for safety reasons, told AFP the attack occurred at about 2:00 am (2300 GMT), with at least two vehicles burned.
They said one vehicle belonged to a journalist, while noting the damage appeared to target Palestinian property broadly.
A photo shared by a Palestinian government agency on X showed graffiti on a Taybeh wall that read: “Al-Mughayyir, you will regret,” referring to a nearby village that was also attacked by settlers earlier this year.
The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry condemned the attack, calling it “settler terrorism.”
Germany’s ambassador to Israel, Steffen Seibert, also condemned it, writing on X: “These extremist settlers may claim that God gave them the land. But they are nothing but criminals abhorrent to any faith.”
Taybeh and its surroundings have experienced several bouts of settler violence in recent months, including an arson attack at an ancient Byzantine church.
The village — home to about 1,300 mostly Christian Palestinians, many holding US dual citizenship — is known for its brewery, the oldest in the Palestinian territories.
Settlers have attacked neighboring communities in recent months, resulting in three deaths, damage to Palestinian water wells and the displacement of at least one rural herding community.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967. The territory is home to about three million Palestinians and around 700,000 Israeli settlers, including about 200,000 in east Jerusalem.
Last week, 71 members of Israel’s 120-seat parliament, or Knesset, passed a motion calling on the government to annex the West Bank.
