OCCUPIED WEST BANK  –  Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have set fire to farmland and sprayed racist slogans in a village near Ramallah, according to news reports, as arson attacks and deadly Israeli military raids have escalated in recent days. The attacks came as Ronen Bar, the head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet (Shabak), urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to greenlight a major military offensive in the occupied territory. Palestinian news agency Wafa, quoting witnesses, reported on Friday that a group of settlers attacked the farm on the outskirts of Khirbet Abu Falah where they burned a shed and left racist graffiti on the walls in Hebrew.

Footage published online by the Quds News Network showed the alleged arson attack. Palestinian civil defense crews were deployed to extinguish the blaze. No injuries were reported in the attack last Thursday night.Wafa reported that Khirbet Abu Falah, as well as the town of Turmus Aya and the village of al-Mughayyir, all northeast of Ramallah, have been subject to repeated raids by Israeli settlers, who allegedly carried them out under the protection of Israeli soldiers.

Earlier, Israeli settlers also torched a Palestinian-owned vehicle in the village of Wadi Rahhal, south of Bethlehem, according to Al Quds Today. The most recent Israeli settler attacks came after Palestinian gunmen shot and killed three Israeli settlers near the illegal settlement of Kedumim last Monday.In the first week of 2025, Israeli settler attacks injured at least 18 Palestinians across the occupied territory, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).During the same period, at least three Palestinians, including a teenager, were killed by Israeli forces, while three other Palestinians, including a child, were killed in disputed circumstances, OCHA reported.

The data did not include the three other Palestinians, including two children, who were killed in an Israeli drone attack in the town of Tammun also in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday. On Friday, Israeli forces continued to carry out raids across the occupied West Bank, firing grenades and arresting several Palestinians. In Qabatiya, south of Jenin, Israeli forces, disguised in civilian clothing, surrounded a house and bombarded it with projectiles, according to Wafa quoting residents in the area. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Since the beginning of 2025, more than 50 Palestinians have been displaced by Israeli home demolitions across the occupied West Bank, according to OCHA. Overnight, multiple Israeli raids were also reported across Nablus with several young Palestinians arrested. (Al Jazeera/EPA)