Settlers said to burn down wedding hall, paint ‘Death to Arabs’ in West Bank village
No injuries reported in overnight incident, which came day after 5 Palestinians were injured when settlers attempted to breach fence of Umm al-Khair, sparking confrontation
Nurit Yohanan is The Times of Israel's Palestinian and Arab world correspondent
Palestinians said Tuesday Israeli settlers set fire to a wedding hall and sprayed graffiti in the central West Bank village of Bidya overnight, according to Palestinian media reports.
Footage from the scene showed a blaze raging through the building.
Pictures also showed graffiti sprayed on walls in the town, reading “Revenge,” “Death to Arabs,” and “Fight the enemy, not the friend.”
No injuries were reported in the apparent arson and vandalism attack.
The West Bank police and Shin Bet security agency said they opened an investigation.
The incident followed a spate of violent settler attacks in the West Bank that locals say are designed to intimidate Palestinians into fleeing their land. Such incidents are rarely prosecuted.
Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian wedding hall in Bidya, near Salfit, Nablus.
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— Palestine Highlights (@PalHighlight) April 8, 2025
In a separate incident on Monday, Palestinians said that settlers attacked the village of Umm al-Khair in the southern West Bank.
A Palestinian source living in the area told The Times of Israel that after settlers set up a caravan near the village and attempted to breach a fence at the village, a confrontation broke out between the settlers and Palestinians.
Subsequently, dozens of masked individuals arrived and attacked Palestinians with clubs. According to the source, five Palestinians were injured, including a 14-year-old boy. They were all transferred to a hospital.
Videos on social media showed police and military forces at the scene, though it was unclear whether they were present during or after the attack.
Police said that there was friction between Palestinians and settlers regarding an illegal fence in the area.
The IDF and Border Police arrived at the scene and separated the forces, police said, adding that one Palestinian was taken for medical treatment by the Red Crescent.
There were no arrests in the incident.
بحراسة قوات الاحتلال.. مستوطنون يعتدون على الفلسطينيين في خربة أم الخير بمسافر يطا، جنوب الخليل. pic.twitter.com/ROAtHSGzM1
— وكالة سند للأنباء – Snd News Agency (@Snd_pal) April 7, 2025
The West Bank has seen a spike in violence since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led terrorists stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
In the West Bank, the military has undertaken large-scale counterterrorism operations that have killed hundreds of people — the vast majority of them combatants, according to the IDF — and displaced tens of thousands.
Arrests of Israelis in incidents of settler violence are extremely rare. The head of the police’s West Bank division is currently under investigation for allegedly refusing to crack down on the phenomenon to curry favor in the eyes of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.
Israel’s failure to prosecute near-daily incidents of settler violence led the previous White House and multiple European governments to begin sanctioning violent settlers last year. US President Donald Trump scrapped his predecessor’s sanctions shortly after taking office in January.
After a settler rampage in Duma last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz declined to characterize it as terrorism, saying: “I don’t define this as ‘terror.’ This is my perspective.”
“There was lawbreaking here, and we must deal with it. We must enforce [the law] against whoever did this,” Katz said of the rampage in Duma. He added, “I am against violence, I support enforcing the law,” and said such acts should not be allowed.
Charlie Summers contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.