By Esat Firat

JERUSALEM (AA): Some 482 attacks were staged by Jewish settlers against Palestinians in occupied West Bank in 2018, Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported on Sunday.

The daily said that settler attacks targeting Palestinians tripled last year compared to 2017.

“As of mid-December, 482 incidents had been reported, compared to 140 for 2017,” it said.

The newspaper wrote that violence by settlers and right-wing activists included “beating up and throwing stones at Palestinians.”

“More frequently, the offenses consisted of painting nationalist and anti-Arab or anti-Muslim slogans, damaging homes and cars and cutting down trees belonging to Palestinian farmers,” it said.

The settler attacks ranged from “beating up and throwing stones at Palestinians, painting nationalist and anti-Arab or anti-Muslim slogans, damaging homes and cars to cutting down trees belonging to Palestinian farmers”.

Last month, Jewish settlers attacked a convoy carrying Palestinian Religious Affairs Minister Yousef Adais near the West Bank city of Salfit, according to local sources.

“Settlers attacked the convoy with stones; one car was damaged, although no injuries were reported,” one informed source had said.

A convoy carrying Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah had also been subject to a similar settler attack near Nablus in December, 2018, according to the Palestinian government.

More than 650,000 Jewish settlers now live on 196 illegal settlements (built with the Israeli government’s approval) and more than 200 settler “outposts” (built without its approval) across the West Bank, according to Palestinian figures.

[Archive photo: Jewish settlers confront Palestinians. Photograph: AA]