Jerusalem—Violence in the occupied West Bank persisted Saturday with Israelis attacking Palestinian residents and a Palestinian shooter killed by Israeli forces at a checkpoint, officials on both sides said.
The latest incidents add to a mounting toll which has cost four Israeli and 16 Palestinian lives across the territory since Monday.
Palestinians have described hundreds of Israelis attacking their villages in recent days, after Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis near a West Bank settlement on Tuesday.
The heads of the Israeli military, police and the Shin Bet domestic security agency on Saturday described as “nationalist terrorism” the series of attacks by Israelis targeting Palestinians in the West Bank.
“This violence increases Palestinian terrorism and harms the state of Israel and the international legitimacy of Israel’s security forces to fight Palestinian terrorism,” a joint statement said.
In the latest such incident, Israel’s army said “rocks were hurled and reports were received of Israeli citizens setting fire to Palestinian property” in the northern village of Umm Safa.
A soldier was wounded and one Israeli was arrested, the army said. AFP
