LONDON: Six Palestinian families who were forced to evacuate homes in a West Bank town due to violence by Israeli settlers returned to their residences on Monday, according to the Palestinian Authority.
The General Authority of Civil Affairs, which coordinates security and civilian matters with Israel, announced that members of six families returned to their homes in the town of Tell after more than two months of displacement, according to the Palestine News Agency.
Tell is home to 6,500 people and has been subjected to repeated attacks by Israeli settlers since late July, when four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed in a confrontation in the area, almost 9 km southwest of Nablus.
Families living on the outskirts of the town were cut off and isolated after Israeli forces set up a checkpoint near their homes following the deadly incident in July. Most attacks on Tell came from the nearby Havat Gilad, a settlement established in 2002.
Israel has 279 settlements in the West Bank, including 14 in East Jerusalem. Almost 737,000 people live in these settlements, among 3.43 million Palestinians. The settlers’ presence in the territory has been deemed illegal by the majority of the international community and a hindrance to a Palestinian state and lasting peace.
Over the past three years, settlers have carried out 14,742 attacks across West Bank towns, according to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission.
Stay on top of the issues that matter to you the most.
