Dozens of Israeli settlers and Palestinians clashed Friday in the West Bank village of Sinjil, where Palestinians set fire to makeshift settler structures and were gearing up to march in protest against recent settler attacks on nearby farmland.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said it treated two men who were beaten by settlers, according to WAFA, the Palestinian Authority’s official news agency.

WAFA reported that settlers also smashed windows and slashed tires of several vehicles, including one belonging to the PA’s Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, which organized the protest march.

Footage the commission published on Facebook showed its head Moayad Shaaban, who holds the rank of minister in the PA, milling around as he and other men dismantled and burned what appeared to be two or three improvised huts.

WAFA also reported that the commission and Sinjil residents had “managed to burn and demolish the grazing outpost recently established… west of the town.” Local Palestinians told AFP that settlers started a fire as well.

Elisha Yered, a prominent member of the so-called Hilltop Youth group of settler extremists, wrote on X that Jews who had settled in the area “pleaded for help from outside” after some 100 Palestinians led by Shaaban “set fires and threw stones” at them.

Minutes later, Yered said, Shaaban’s commission uploaded the video of fires being set to “one structure after another.”

According to Yered, the settlers had on Thursday night alerted Israeli security forces, who control the West Bank, to Sinjil residents’ plan to hold what Yered called a “mass riot… organized by PA officials and set to include far-left activists and foreign diplomats.” It was not immediately clear if any diplomats were in fact present at the protest march.

Yered said the military had “promised to prevent the violent event” but ultimately failed to do so.

However, AFP reported that several IDF jeeps arrived at the scene after Palestinian youths marched toward a hill, setting fire to its base, in a bid to drive away settlers who began throwing stones from on high after local residents and activists began to march.

The Palestinians withdrew after soldiers fired a few shots in the air, AFP said. The IDF did not immediately comment.

Anwar al-Ghafri, a lawyer and member of Sinjil’s city council, told AFP that settler attacks are not new, but have intensified in recent days in the area, just north of the West Bank city of Ramallah.

“A group of settlers, with support and approval from the Israeli army, are carrying out organized attacks on citizens’ land,” he told AFP.

“They assault farmers, destroy crops, and prevent people from reaching or trying to reach their land,” he said, describing the events that had prompted Friday’s march.

In April, a resident of Sinjil died a day after a violent settler attack in which his home was set ablaze, an eyewitness told The Times of Israel at the time.

Israel recently erected a high fence cutting off parts of Sinjil from Road 60, which runs through the entire West Bank from north to south, and which both Israelis and Palestinians use.

Mohammad Asfour, a 52-year-old resident, told AFP that the fence was isolating his community, like other Palestinian cities and towns that recently had gates erected by Israel to control access to the outside.

“Sinjil is suffering greatly because of this wall. My house is near it, and so are my brothers’ homes. The settler has the right to come to Sinjil — but the sons of Sinjil aren’t allowed to climb up this hill,” Asfour said.

The IDF said the wall was erected to protect the nearby Ramallah-Nablus highway.

“In light of the recurring terror incidents in this area, it was decided to place a fence in order to prevent stone-throwing at a main route and repeated disturbances of public order, thereby safeguarding the security of civilians in the region,” the IDF said in a statement.

Because residents are still permitted to enter and exit through the single remaining entrance, the policy is deemed to allow “free access” to the town, the military said.

Violence in the West Bank has spiked since the Hamas onslaught of October 7, 2023, which sparked the war in Gaza.

Since then, Israeli forces have arrested some 6,000 wanted Palestinians across the territory, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 52 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

Nurit Yohanan contributed to this report.