10 reported injured as settlers torch cars, property in West Bank Palestinian town

At least 10 Palestinians were reportedly injured Sunday evening as settler extremists torched cars and property in a northern West Bank Palestinian village, the latest in a wave of such attacks.

Israeli security forces responded to the violence, seizing weapons and arresting five Israelis. At a separate location, settlers reportedly attacked a police officer, injuring him. Several Palestinians were also said to be injured amid the security forces’ operations.

The attack occurred one day after Yehuda Sherman, an 18-year-old settler, was killed in a collision between his ATV and a Palestinian vehicle in the northern West Bank, an incident authorities are investigating as a possible terror attack. Following that incident, on Saturday, there were around 20 settler attacks in various West Bank villages, including arson, stone-throwing and assaults.

Settler extremists gathered again at around 5 p.m. on Sunday. The official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported simultaneous settler attacks in at least six West Bank communities throughout the night, from the area of Jenin in the north to the South Hebron Hills.

The attackers in the village of Deir Khatab set fire to several vehicles and structures. Among the 10 Palestinians injured there were a 45-year-old man who was shot in the foot and a woman suffering from smoke inhalation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent and Palestinian media outlets.

Palestinian outlets also reported that settlers attempted to set fire to vehicles and a clinic in the village of Burqa in the Ramallah area Sunday night. No injuries were reported in that incident.

Settlers also reportedly blocked a road for several hours overnight in the South Hebron Hills in an apparent attempt to prevent Palestinians from passing, and a Palestinian vehicle was stoned in the Nablus area.

The incidents are the most recent in a months-long spate of settler violence in the West Bank. Military leaders have condemned and discouraged the attacks, though arrests of the suspected perpetrators are rare.

Under US pressure, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held an emergency meeting with security brass last week to discuss the issue, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

תקיפת מתנחלים והצתות בכפר דיר אל־חטאב

צילום: שימוש לפי סעיף 27א' לחוק זכויות יוצרים pic.twitter.com/52eXp5jD5U

— הארץ חדשות (@haaretznewsvid) March 22, 2026

Security forces composed of IDF troops, police and Border Police responded to the violence, according to a statement from the IDF and Israeli police. They searched a suspicious vehicle near the town and found weapons, which they seized. Border Police then arrested five Israeli citizens who were taken for questioning.

Several Israelis attacked security forces near the settlement of Yitzhar, according to the statement, injuring a police officer and damaging a vehicle belonging to the forces. Several Palestinians were also injured in the incidents and received medical care.

The statement added that the IDF and police condemn all acts of violence.

חוץ מזה – מתנחלים ניסו להצית רכב ומרפאה בכפר באזור רמאללה הלילה וחסמו כביש בדרום הר חברון ורכב פלסטיני (חונה) נופץ באזור שכם. לא ידוע על נפגעים. https://t.co/AQcIC7cXtD pic.twitter.com/aYBJa7rpup

— Nurit Yohanan (@nurityohanan) March 23, 2026

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir last week called settler violence  “morally and ethically unacceptable,” amid a string of attacks that have killed six West Bank Palestinians this month.

On March 16, according to Kan, Netanyahu conducted an emergency phone meeting about the upsurge in settler attacks. The discussion included Zamir, Shin Bet chief David Zini, Defense Minister Yisrael Katz and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Kan reported that Netanyahu arranged the conversation after a call from an unnamed senior US government official, who expressed consternation regarding the matter.

Netanyahu demanded that actions be taken to prevent nationalist violence, saying it distracted attention from the ongoing war in Iran, the report said. Ben Gvir, a far-right leader, pushed back, claiming that violence is taken seriously only when the perpetrators are Jews.

Sunday’s attacks began around the same time as Sherman, who lived in an illegal West Bank outpost, was laid to rest. While the police and Shin Bet have said they are still investigating the circumstances of Sherman’s death, several figures on the far right called it a murder and vowed to respond.

At the funeral, far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the abolition of the Palestinian Authority, which governs daily affairs in the territory’s Palestinian population centers.

“We are going in their path [of Sherman and his associates] to collapse the authority of evil and terror called the Palestinian Authority,” said the finance minister.

And on the previous evening, MK Zvi Sukkot, a member of Smotrich’s Religious Zionism party, called for revenge.

“Terrible pain on hearing about the murder of Yehuda Shmuel Sherman, may God avenge his blood, today,” he wrote on Facebook. Sukkot ended his post with the word “V E N G E A N C E.”

AP contributed to this report.