RAMALLAH, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli settlers attacked several areas in the West Bank on Friday, causing injuries and damage, according to Palestinian sources and local residents.
In the east of Ramallah, two young men were injured by live bullets in a settler attack, according to activist Ayed Ghafri.
He said that one of the men was injured in the chest and the other in the hand. Ghafri described their condition as moderate and said they were transferred to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah.
Activist Osama Makhamreh told Xinhua that settlers attacked Bedouin homes in the village of Susya in the Masafer Yatta area, south of Hebron, and assaulted a man and his wife, causing head and hand injuries. They were subsequently transferred to the hospital.
The Palestine Liberation Organization's Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission reported in a statement that settlers burned four vehicles and parts of a house in the town of Atara, northwest of Ramallah.
The commission said that settlers attacked the eastern area of Atara, setting fire to four vehicles, and threw Molotov cocktails at a house, causing material damage. They also spray-painted "racist" graffiti on the walls. Fire engines rushed to extinguish the blaze.
In a separate incident, settlers cut down olive trees in the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, according to the commission.
Head of the Duma village council Suleiman Dawabsheh told Xinhua that settlers also uprooted several olive and grape trees from the lands of the village.
There was no official Israeli comment on these developments.
In a statement, the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned "the settlers' terrorism and escalating crimes against Palestinians, their land, homes, vehicles, trees, and livelihoods."
The ministry held the Israeli government directly responsible for these "crimes, which are being perpetrated under the protection of the occupation army and with the constant incitement of government ministers."
For his part, Palestinian National Council Speaker Rawhi Fattouh said in a statement that the escalating settler attacks were "not isolated incidents, but rather part of an escalating pattern of systematic crimes targeting Palestinian communities and villages in the West Bank with the aim of emptying the land of its original owners." ■
