Settlers attack Palestinian property in West Bank

By Aysar al-Ais</p> <p>RAMALLAH, Palestinian (AA) – Jewish settlers hurled stones at the homes and vehicles of Palestinian residents in the occupied West Bank on Monday, eyewitnesses said.</p> <p>The attack took place in Kifl Haris, a Palestinian village in the northern West Bank located six kilometers (3.7 miles) west of the city of Salfit. </p> <p>The settlers, who also threatened the vehicles’ drivers, caused material damage but no casualties, the eyewitnesses added.</p> <p> Israeli forces meanwhile erected an iron gate at the entrance to the village of Bruqin west of Salfit following the establishment of an Israeli military checkpoint.</p> <p>Jewish settlers have cut off roads in the occupied West Bank since Sunday, after a settler and an Israeli soldier were killed and others wounded in a shooting attack in the region.</p> <p>The Israeli army said a Palestinian had stabbed an Israeli soldier near the Ariel settlement in the northern West Bank on Sunday before opening fire with a rifle on Israelis at a nearby bus station. </p> <p>Early Monday, Israeli forces raided several homes and shops in Salfit while searching for the suspected shooter. </p> <p>Roughly 650,000 Israelis live in more than 100 settlements built since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem. </p> <p>The Palestinians want these territories, along with the Gaza Strip, for the establishment of a future Palestinian state. </p> <p>International law views both the West Bank and East Jerusalem as &quot;occupied territories&quot; and considers all Jewish settlement-building activity there illegal.