Zionist settlers torch vehicles, target Palestinian-American's home in West Bank raid

Mustafa Zaatar, the owner of the home, said on Sunday that dozens of armed Zionist settlers entered Abu Falah village at around 1:30 am, encircled his house and vandalized the property before setting the vehicles on fire.

He added that surveillance cameras installed around the house captured the attack as it unfolded.

“Within about 10 minutes, we saw the cars go up in flames,” he explained.

The homeowner noted that local residents subsequently confronted the settlers and extinguished the fires, although many villagers feared they could be shot.

Zaatar said two Palestinians had been killed during an attack by Israeli settlers in the same area last year.

“They are trying to force us off our land. We will stay here. We will not leave,” he emphasized.

Zaatar, who also holds US citizenship, said his citizenship had provided him with no protection.

“I am an American citizen, but I have not felt that it protected me or offered me anything,” he said.

He added that family members in the United States contacted the American consulate, which later reached out to him.

He asked consular officials to visit his home to assess the damage and the threats he faces.

The incident comes weeks after US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described Israeli settlers violence against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank as “terrorism."

Since October 2023, the occupied West Bank has experienced a rise in assaults by the Israeli army and settlers. These attacks have resulted in the deaths and abduction of thousands of Palestinians.

Addressing the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York last Tuesday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that Israeli violence, forced displacement and settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank are undermining prospects for peace and raising the “specter of ethnic cleansing.”

According to official Palestinian figures, Zionist regime’s attacks have martyred at least 1,206 Palestinians, including 254 children, and wounded about 13,350 others since Zionist regime launched its genocidal war in Gaza in October 2023.