Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to Palestinian fields, homes with families inside, block fire trucks from reaching scene

Israeli settlers reportedly torched fields, attempted to burn a school, and tried to set homes on fire with families inside across at least nine West Bank locations the night of May 18, while Israeli military forces blocked fire trucks from reaching the scenes.

The attacks, reported in both Israeli and broader regional media, which were part of a new Israeli settler campaign of coordinated arson. The string of assaults stretched from villages northeast of Ramallah to those south of Nablus and the Hebron Hills.

In Al-Mughayyir, which sits surrounded by Israeli settlements and outposts in Area C of the West Bank, dozens of settlers descended on the village outskirts late May 18 and torched most of the village's olive groves and cropland, Wafa reported. 

Israeli military forces prevented Palestinian residents from approaching to extinguish the fires and fired live rounds or illumination flares toward people attempting to reach the burning fields. Settlers also attempted to set homes on fire while families were inside, Times of Israel reported. 

Settlers also burned fields in the herding community of Umm Nir in the Masafer Yatta area south of Hebron and in As-Sawiya, south of Nablus, and attempted to burn a school there. Journalist Ihab Hassan reported at least nine locations targeted in the attacks. 

Israeli groups also set fire to several homes in the Jenin refugee camp May 19, according to Wafa. 

Across the West Bank, The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has counted more than 700 settler attacks affecting over 200 communities since January — an average of six incidents per day.

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West Bank Bedouin village evicted

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — a key political architect and enabler of Israeli settlement expansion — signed an order May 19 directing the eviction of the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar.

Smotrich framed the move as retaliation after reports that a warrant for his arrest may soon be issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC), which Smotrich called a “declaration of war.”

Middle East Eye, citing sources familiar with the matter, reported that the prosecutor’s office is accusing Smotrich of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the West Bank related to the forced displacement of Palestinians, helping move Israeli settlers into occupied territory, persecution, and apartheid. Israel rejects the court’s authority. 

“From today, every economic or other target within my authority to strike — whether as Finance Minister or as a minister in the Defense Ministry — will be attacked. Not with words or gimmicks, but with actions,” Smotrich said. 

Smotrich described his order for the evacuation of Khan al-Ahmar as “only the beginning.”

The small Bedouin village has roughly 180 to 200 residents.