Jewish settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank on Saturday, injuring several people and setting fire to homes and a poultry farm, Palestinian media said.
Wafa, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency, reported that settlers had wounded two people in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus, and had set fire to three homes and a poultry farm on the eastern side of the village and several agricultural fields on the outskirts of the village.
A number of cars were also set ablaze, and four horses were stolen from the village, it said.
One of the homes targeted in the attack burned down entirely, the Qatari Al-Araby Al-Jadeed news outlet reported, while the other two suffered damage but remained standing.
Citing unnamed security officials, several Hebrew media outlets reported that the settlers were from the Israeli outpost of Ahiya, southeast of the village.
According to the officials cited by Kan and Ynet, the settlers claimed that residents of the village had intentionally started a fire near the outpost.
Residents of the village who confronted the settlers were attacked with stones, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said two people suffered wounds to the head as a result and had been taken to a nearby hospital.
The Israeli security officials said that several Palestinians had thrown stones at the settlers as well, injuring five of them. They were said to have received treatment for their injuries at the scene.
Gunfire could also be heard in unverified videos of the blaze posted to social media, but there were no reports of any injuries as a result.
Jalud council head Raed Haj Muhammad told Wafa that several families who had been picking olives in the area were unable to return home as a result of the fires, while others were prevented from reaching their homes by the settlers.
Following the attack, Rabbis for Human Rights said it would visit Jalud on Sunday in order to assist with the olive harvest.
“This is the only Jewish response to settler terrorism,” the human rights organization wrote on X.
The violence on Saturday was the second such incident in the past week.
On Thursday night, reports stated that some 100 settlers had broken into Jalud and had attempted to set fire to homes and cars. They were also said to have cut water and electric lines in the village and targeted residents with stones.
Palestinians in the West Bank have faced intensified settler violence since the start of the olive harvest season earlier this month, and the United Nations said last week that farmers were facing “the most dangerous olive season ever.”
According to the Yesh Din rights group, extremist settler groups have forced Palestinian harvesters to flee, prevented them from working, stolen olives and agricultural equipment and cut down their trees.
Attacks by radical settlers on Palestinian olive growers have increased significantly in recent years as part of efforts by such extremists to harm farmers financially and force them off the land, Israeli human rights groups have alleged.
However, the harvest season is particularly critical this year, as many growers were unable to work their crops last year due to security limitations in the West Bank following the October 7 Hamas attacks and the outbreak of the Gaza war, which was accompanied by a massive spike in settler violence.
Over Yom Kippur last weekend, Yesh Din reported a spate of attacks on olive groves in and around the Palestinian villages of Yassuf, Turmus Aya, Yatma, Beit Furik, Jalud, Ramin, Bayt Lid, and Mughayyir.
On Thursday, the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry said that a 59-year-old woman had been killed by IDF fire while picking olives near the security barrier in the Jenin area.
A deputy commander in the IDF’s 334th Battalion was subsequently suspended and the military said it had opened an investigation into the incident.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.