Video shows fires in Palestinian village in West Bank during Israeli settler attack
By JULIA FRANKEL
Associated Press
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlers rampaged through a Palestinian village in the West Bank, setting fire to a series of structures, according to security camera footage obtained by The Associated Press on Sunday, in an overnight onslaught that has become a common phenomenon in the occupied territory.
In the video, time-stamped at around 10 p.m. Saturday, several structures in the village go up in flames as the sound of gunfire, screaming and barking echoes in the background. At one point in the video, the fires grow so large that they illuminate the bands of settlers, dressed in black, pacing freely through the village.
Also Sunday, at least four more countries said they had been invited to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the international body expected to oversee his Gaza ceasefire plan and perhaps other conflict resolutions.
Meanwhile, an Israeli Cabinet minister said that he’d ordered officials to disconnect the water and electricity for facilities of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, or UNRWA. It’s the latest action in Israel’s long-running campaign to shut down the agency. UNRWA fears the shutdown could hamper its work in east Jerusalem.
Settler attack video
The footage obtained by the AP showed the moment dozens of settlers descended on the small Bedouin hamlet of Khirbet al-Sidra, north of Jerusalem, attacking Palestinians and international activists and burning cars and homes, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem governate, which monitors Palestinian affairs in the area.
In a statement, it said that eight homes and at least two cars were burned in the attack.
Israel’s military said that soldiers dispatched to the village found an Israeli vehicle with clubs inside. It said that Palestinians, Israelis and foreign nationals were injured, and troops were searching the area to make arrests. As of Sunday afternoon, no arrests had been reported.
It marked the latest assault in the tense territory as settler violence spikes in recent months.
Around 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace.
The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state. Israel has sought to play down the violence as the work of a small, radical minority. But Israel’s far-right government, dominated by settlers and their supporters, has done little to stop the attacks.
Board of Peace invites
Jordan, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan on Sunday announced that they had received invitations to Trump’s Board of Peace. Albania, Egypt, Paraguay, Argentina and Turkey have already said they were invited.
The board, made up of world leaders, was initially seen as a mechanism focused on ending the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. It’s now taking shape with ambitions to have a far broader mandate to address other global crises, potentially rivaling the United Nations.
The U.S. hasn’t yet announced the official list of members. In letters sent Friday to various world leaders inviting them to be “founding members” of the board, Trump says the body would “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict.”
A U.S. official said there is no requirement to contribute money to join the Board of Peace, but confirmed that a $1 billion contribution secures a permanent membership, rather than a three-year appointment. The official spoke on condition of anonymity about the charter, which hasn’t been made public, and said the money raised would go to rebuilding Gaza.
Israel moves against UNRWA
Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said on X Sunday he’d issued formal notices to disconnect water and electricity from facilities belonging to UNRWA.
The U.N. agency said on X that the shutdown could take effect within two weeks. It comes after Israel’s parliament in December passed a bill to cut the supply of electricity and water to the facilities.
The earlier ban already has closed many of UNRWA’s services in east Jerusalem, though it continues to operate a vocational training center in east Jerusalem.
The agency provides aid and services — including health and education — to around 2.5 million Palestinian refugees in Gaza and the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, as well as 3 million more in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon.
Earlier last year, Israel banned the agency from operating on its territory. The ban followed months of attacks on the agency by Israel, which says it’s deeply infiltrated by Hamas. UNRWA rejects that accusation.
___
Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Zana Cimili in Pristina, Kosovo, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, and Josh Boak in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed to this report.
