Israel settlers vandalise electrical facility, causing power outage in West Bank village

Israeli settlers caused a power outage in the West Bank village of Yasouf, east of Salfit, this evening, reported Wafa news agency.

Wael Abu Madi, head of the Yasouf Village Council, told Wafa that settlers from the illegal settlement of Tappuah, built on land belonging to a Palestinian village, vandalised the electrical facility at the eastern entrance, causing a blackout in the entire area.

Abu Madi further noted that this is just one in a series of ongoing settler attacks on Yasouf, which include assaults on Palestinian residents, blocking access to their lands, closing the village’s main entrance, and repeated power disruptions.

Earlier today, Israeli settlers from Tappuah also attacked Yasouf farmers during the olive harvest, throwing stones and injuring one farmer in the head.

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It comes after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly endorsed a resolution last month calling for an end to Israel’s “unlawful” occupation of the West Bank within 12 months and called for reparations to be paid to Palestinians affected by the decades-long occupation of their land.

Tensions have intensified throughout the occupied West Bank as Israel persists in its offensive on the Gaza Strip, where it has killed more than 42,500 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

The Israeli army has expanded its operations in the West Bank, while settler attacks have intensified, leading to the deaths of at least 742 Palestinians, injuring more than 6,200 and detaining over 11,100 others in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.

In a landmark advisory opinion on 19 July, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and for reparations to be paid to Palestinians.

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