Israeli settlers launched another wave of raids across the occupied West Bank, setting houses and cars on fire and attacking a Palestinian child, according to Palestinian officials and media.

The Palestinian Wafa news agency reported that a man and his child were attacked with “sharp instruments” in the village of Khirbet Shuweika, south of Hebron, on Friday. Both were hospitalized with head injuries.

In the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus, settlers torched a home. Palestinian Civil Defence teams arrived to extinguish the blaze.

In Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, Wafa cited security sources saying settlers “stormed the outskirts of the village, burned a citizen’s vehicle, and wrote racist slogans on the walls of houses.”

In the village of al-Asa’asa in Jenin, Israeli forces forced residents to exhume a newly buried body and move it elsewhere, claiming the original site was too close to an illegal Israeli settlement.

Settlers also attacked a Palestinian man in Beit Fajjar, south of Bethlehem, and stole his mobile phone.

A group of Palestinians picnicking at Burak Sulayman (Solomon’s Pools) south of Bethlehem were forced to leave after Israeli forces fired stun grenades at them. The Palestinian Red Crescent treated two for tear gas inhalation and evacuated five others.

In Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, Mayor Taysir Abu Mufreh told Wafa that Israeli forces fired “tear gas and sound bombs” at worshippers leaving a mosque and locked some inside.

On Friday, Israeli forces arrested four Palestinian men in Battir, west of Bethlehem, while hiking near a railway. The next day, three more were arrested during a raid on Nablus.

Settlers attacked the town of Silwad, northeast of Ramallah, leading to clashes with residents.

Human rights groups say Israeli authorities allow settlers to operate with total impunity in attacks against Palestinians.

In February, Israel approved a plan to claim large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property.”

More than 700,000 Israelis live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Source: www.aljazeera.com