W. Bank Settlers Damage Palestinian Vehicles: Official

Dozens of Palestinian vehicles were vandalized Tuesday morning in a suspected "price tag" attack by Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to a Palestinian official.



"Israeli settlers vandalized about 30 vehicles at dawn today in the villages of Assawyia and Lobban near the West Bank city of Nablus," Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official in charge of the Israeli settlement file, told Anadolu Agency.



"Vehicles had their tires slashed and their windshields smashed and were spray-painted with anti-Arab and anti-Muslim slogans," Daghlas said.



"Settlers also tried to attack local mosques but were prevented from doing so by villagers," he added.



So-called "price tag" vandalism is a strategy employed by extremist Jewish settlers by which they attack Palestinians and their property in ostensible "retaliation" for perceived threats to Israeli settlement expansion.



In a related development, the Israeli army reportedly detained eight Palestinians in overnight raids carried out across the occupied West Bank late Monday night.



"Five Palestinians were arrested after their homes were raided in the city of Qalqilya," the Palestinian Prisoners' Society, an NGO, said in a statement.



"Three others, meanwhile, were arrested in the cities of Ramallah, Nablus and Jenin," the statement added.



According to Palestinian figures, some 6,500 Palestinians are currently being held in Israeli prisons, including dozens of women and scores of minors.



Roughly 500 of these are being held without trial or charge under what Israel calls "administrative detention".



The Israeli army frequently carries out sweeping arrest campaigns across the West Bank on the pretext of searching for "wanted" Palestinians. -