Israeli settlers torch factories and farmland in massive West Bank arson raid
A Palestinian man records a burning truck with his phone after an Israeli settler attack in Beit Lid, east of Tulkarm in the occupied West Bank on 11 November 2025
Mera Aladam reports in Middle East Eye on 12 November 2025:
Israeli settlers carried out a large-scale arson attack on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, the latest in a series of army-backed assaults that have surged since October.
Dozens of masked settlers targeted an industrial area east of Tulkarm, near Beit Lid, in the attack, setting fire to a dairy factory, surrounding farmland, several buildings and multiple trucks. Settlers also hurled rocks at Palestinians on the scene, wounding at least four people.
The fire spread to a nearby nomadic Palestinian community, engulfing their tents.
According to local media, Israeli forces accompanied and protected the settlers. The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces pursued Palestinians who tried to resist the attack.
Israeli media said the army arrested four settlers involved in the assault, while others vandalised an army vehicle. Three of them were released on Wednesday. The arrests are rare amid near-daily escalating settler attacks across the West Bank. Most settlers arrested for assaults against Palestinians are never prosecuted.
Elsewhere, settlers fenced off more Palestinian land in the northern Jordan Valley, a move seen as an attempt to prevent farmers from working and to undermine their livelihoods.
Meanwhile, in occupied East Jerusalem, settlers continued near-daily incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, with over 200 entering its courtyards under the protection of Israeli police, the Islamic Waqf Department said. The settlers performed Talmudic prayers and rituals inside the mosque, while Israeli forces stationed outside the gates barred Muslim worshippers from entering.
Weekend of assaults
Tuesday’s attack followed another violent weekend of settler rampages across the West Bank.