Israeli settlers set fire to nearly 20 vehicles early Monday in Al-Bireh, a city in the occupied West Bank near Ramallah, according to reports from the Palestinian Civil Defence and an Israeli security source. An AFP journalist observed several charred cars and the blackened facade of a five-story building where they were parked.
Rami Omar, head of the local civil defense office, stated that an alert went off at 3:30 a.m., signaling that settlers had entered the area and committed acts of vandalism. An Israeli security official, who was not authorized to speak on the matter publicly, reported that authorities received a notification of the incident around 4:00 a.m., prompting soldiers to arrive on the scene after the settlers had left. According to the official, 19 vehicles were damaged.
Israeli police, soldiers, and officers from the Shin Bet security agency were deployed to Al-Bireh to collect evidence for the investigation. Authorities have not yet identified the settlers’ origin or motives.
Ihab Al-Zabin, a resident of the damaged building, told AFP he saw arsonists fleeing toward the nearby Israeli settlement of Beit El. He described seeing around 10 individuals he identified as settlers pouring liquid on vehicles before setting them ablaze. “I yelled from my apartment, and at that moment, they ran away,” Al-Zabin said. He added that as he and his neighbors attempted to extinguish the fire, settlers fired shots toward them.
Abdullah Abu Rahmah, of the Palestinian Commission against Settlements, claimed that the attackers were known arsonists who have targeted nearby villages previously. Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governor Laila Ghannam stated that the incident could have led to a “massacre,” noting that the building housed more than 60 people.
Incidents of violence in the West Bank have surged since Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel last year, sparking a war in Gaza. According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 270 settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians and their property were recorded between October 1 and October 28. About 490,000 Israeli settlers reside in the West Bank in settlements that international law deems illegal, sharing the territory with approximately three million Palestinians.