Settlers suspected of desecrating West Bank graves

Vandals believed to be Jewish extremists desecrated graves and damaged property in a Palestinian village in the West Bank on Monday, Palestinian and Israeli officials said.

Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian Authority official responsible for the northern West Bank, told AFP that vandals entered the village of Al-Sawiya, south of Nablus in the early hours of the morning.

“Settlers came to Al-Sawiya and smashed a greenhouse, slashed the tyres of three tractors and wrote ‘revenge’ in Hebrew on gravestones,” he said.

The village lies between the settlements of Rahelim and Eli.

Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement that the graffiti also included the word “Eviatar” and the phrase “price tag”.

Eviatar Borovsky, from the hardline settlement of Yitzhar, was stabbed to death by a Palestinian on April 30. “Price tag” is a euphemism for hate crimes, primarily committed by Israeli extremists against Palestinians.

Following Borovsky’s killing, settlers went on the rampage, stoning Palestinian vehicles in the northern West Bank, including a school bus carrying children.

They also smashed windows of a mosque and set fire to Palestinian farmland.