By SCM Foreign Desk
RAMALLAH, West Bank — In a series of coordinated, violent raids that residents say could have easily turned fatal, groups of Israeli settlers launched arson attacks across Palestinian communities east of Ramallah early Tuesday, torching vehicles, setting fire to a mosque, and allegedly dousing an elderly resident with gasoline.
The attacks, which targeted the villages of Burqa and nearby Deir Dibwan, represent a significant escalation in a wave of settler violence that human rights advocates and Palestinian officials are increasingly describing as organized “pogroms.”
According to local witnesses and Palestinian officials, the assault began under the cover of darkness when dozens of settlers descended upon the village of Burqa. Armed and carrying accelerants, the attackers forced their way into a local mosque, setting the interior alight.
”We woke up to the smell of smoke and the sound of screaming,” said Ahmad Tamimi, a resident of Burqa.
“They came to destroy. If the community hadn’t rushed out to confront them and extinguish the flames, the entire center of the village would have burned down.”
As residents scrambled to save the religious site, attackers turned their attention to private property. Multiple vehicles were set ablaze, sending thick plumes of black smoke into the night air. In one of the most harrowing accounts of the night, Palestinian sources reported that an elderly local man was cornered by attackers and doused with gasoline before neighbors intervened to save his life.
The violence quickly rippled to the neighboring town of Deir Dibwan. There, the pattern repeated: settlers torched a row of Palestinian-owned vehicles and vandalized homes, leaving behind charred wreckage and a community paralyzed by fear.
While settler violence has long been a fixture of life in the occupied West Bank, the scale, coordination, and explicit targeting of religious and civilian infrastructure in Tuesday’s attacks have drawn sharp condemnation.
”These are no longer isolated incidents of vandalism,” said a representative from a prominent Israeli human rights organization, speaking on the condition of anonymity due to the volatile climate.
“The organized nature of these raids—targeting homes, places of worship, and livelihoods simultaneously—fits the historical definition of a pogrom. It is a systematic effort to terrorize a population into displacement.”
For Palestinians, the psychological toll is matched by the economic devastation. In these rural communities east of Ramallah, vehicles and agricultural property are vital lifelines. The destruction of a car or a tractor can plunge an entire extended family into financial ruin.
The latest assault underscores a deeper, structural crisis in the West Bank. In recent years, the intersection of expanding Israeli settlements, a highly nationalistic Israeli government coalition, and a lack of security accountability has created what critics call a culture of total impunity.
Under international law, Israel, as the occupying power, is obligated to protect the civilian population of the West Bank.
However, human rights groups—including Israel’s own B’Tselem—have meticulously documented cases where Israeli security forces either stood by during settler attacks or actively protected the perpetrators from Palestinian self-defense.
Data compiled by the United Nations shows that indictments against settlers who commit acts of violence against Palestinians are vanishingly rare. Critics argue that this lack of meaningful accountability functions as a green light, ensuring that attacks on Palestinian communities can be carried out repeatedly without fear of legal consequences.
As dawn broke over Burqa, residents gathered outside the scorched entrance of their mosque, sweeping away ash and surveying the blackened hulls of their cars.
With no state authority to protect them and international intervention stalled, the community is left with a bracing realization: they are entirely on their own.