West Bank resident (archives)
Photo: AFP
Rightists suspected of torching Palestinian property
Police believe extreme right-wing activists set house, two vehicles on fire in West Bank village of Ain Abous. 'We are 12 people in this house. What are we supposed to do now?' asks resident who lost his home
Police suspect that extreme-right wing activists set fire to a house and two vehicles in the West Bank village of Ain Abous, near Nablus, on Saturday night. There were no reports of injuries in the incident.
Nader Hashem-Alaan, whose house was burnt, recounted the incident in a conversation with Ynet. "At 2 am I woke up from the noise of cars," he said. "I went to the window to look out and saw a Subaru next to the house, near our tractors. There were two people standing next to the car.
The family whose house was torched filed a complaint with the Civil Administration.
Persecuted
Residents of Khirbet Bir al-'Idd in Hebron area forced to leave their homes 10 years ago following repeated attacks by settlers. Last week, families return with IDF approval but are harassed again
"I began shouting at them, 'What are you doing?' and then they started torching everything: The storeroom, the tractor's wheels – everything was completely burnt. When I called them, they yelled at me, 'Get inside the house.' What are we supposed to do now? We are 12 people in this house. I don’t know what we are going to do. We'll have to sleep on the road."
The security forces were dispatched to the area and launched an investigation. They estimated that the act was carried out as part of the rightists' "price tag" policy following the cabinet decision to freeze constriction in settlements for 10 months.
In an evaluation of the situation held over the weekend by the Israel Defense Forces and Civil Administration, defense establishment officials demanded that the police boost its enforcement efforts against settlers on the ground and carry out arrests.
Defense officials fear that the clashes over the settlement freeze will worsen this week, as Civil Administration inspectors and the security forces are scheduled to visit settlements and outposts where the "hard core" of settlers live, in order to hand out construction freeze orders.
Efrat Weiss contributed to this report
