Palestinian home in West Bank burned, vandalized in apparent settler attack

Attackers torch house in town of al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, vandalize it with ‘price tag’ grafitti; no injuries reported

Israeli settler extremists reportedly carried out an arson attack in a Palestinian village north of Ramallah on Wednesday, setting fire to a home and leaving threatening graffiti messages.

According to the Ramallah municipality, the attack took place in al-Mazraa al-Sharqiya, a village some 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Ramallah.

No injuries were reported in the incident, and neither the Israeli military nor police issued comments about the attack.

Footage published by the Ramallah municipality showed a charred garage, with an adjacent stairwell also badly burned.

A Hebrew message written in black graffiti on an outer wall read “price tag,” “revenge,” and “regards from the ‘peripheral youth.'”

Settler extremists often refer to violence against Palestinians as a “price tag” for Palestinian attacks and the dismantling of settler outposts by Israeli forces.

Perpetrators of such attacks are sometimes referred to as “peripheral youth” — a common Hebrew euphemism for at-risk youth — by those who seek to downplay settler violence.

In a statement, the municipality accused Israel of enabling “organized terrorism” as a means of driving Palestinians from their land, and called for international action to stop the attacks.

Wednesday’s arson attack comes amid a recent surge in violence and extremist settler activity in the West Bank, as well as after Israel announced major steps to tighten its hold on the territory, including announcing a string of new settlements and plans to recognize several previously illegal outposts.

Settler attacks have been escalating in recent months, prompting security agencies to invest more in fighting the trend. Prosecutions of Jewish extremists are rare, however, and convictions are even rarer. Critics have accused the government, the most right-wing in Israel’s history, of shrugging off the attacks.

As of last month, the IDF has recorded more than 752 incidents of Jewish nationalistic crime and settler violence since the start of the year. The total for 2024 was 675 incidents. Much of the violence in recent months came during the Palestinian olive harvest.