Israeli occupiers set fire to farmland in Christian-majority town in West Bank

Israeli occupiers set fire to a hill with agricultural land in Taybeh, a Christian-majority town east of Ramallah in the central West Bank, the town’s mayor said Wednesday.

A group of occupiers attacked the town’s land late Tuesday and set fire to a mountainous area, burning a large area of cultivated farmland, Taybeh Mayor Suleiman Khoury told Anadolu.

Residents heard gunfire around the targeted area, preventing them from reaching the fire to extinguish it, Khoury added.

The occupiers remained in the area until Israeli forces arrived, he said.

Khoury said Taybeh, like other Palestinian towns east of Ramallah, faces repeated occupier attacks aimed at forcing residents to leave their land.

“The attacks do not distinguish between Muslims and Christians. The occupiers want the land without its people,” he said.

Taybeh is one of the few Palestinian towns in the West Bank that still has a Christian majority, according to church and local accounts. Residents say the town’s historical Christian presence dates back thousands of years.

In recent months, the town has seen a series of occupier attacks, including fires set around the historic al-Khader Church, assaults on residents’ property and racist graffiti, local officials said.

Several Israeli illegal settlements and pastoral outposts surround the town. Residents say they serve as launch points for repeated attacks on Palestinian farmland and property.

About 750,000 Israeli occupiers live in 141 illegal settlements and 224 outposts in the West Bank, including about 250,000 in occupied East Jerusalem. The international community considers the settlements illegal.

Since October 2023, Israeli army fire and occupier attacks have killed at least 1,169 Palestinians in the West Bank, wounded 12,666 others, led to the arrest of about 23,000 people and displaced 33,000, according to official Palestinian figures.