Updated at 11:40 am (GMT +2): An Israeli settler crashed into a wall after attempting on Thursday morning to run over a Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, eyewitnesses said.
The settler tried to ram his vehicle into a Palestinian man in Bethlehem's al-Khader town, but the latter narrowly escaped the attack, the witnesses said.
According to the witnesses, the Israeli settler fled the scene after he missed the Palestinian man and crashed into a wall instead.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces detained four relatives of a Palestinian man from the southern West Bank town of Beit Awwa early Thursday in connection with a hit and run incident that left three soldiers injured on the main Bethlehem-Hebron road the night before.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli troops erected several military checkpoints around Beit Awwa west of Hebron before ransacking the home of Hammam Masalma, a Palestinian who is suspected by Israeli intelligence to be the driver of the truck that hit the soldiers near al-Arrub.
Masalma, however, was not at home at the time of the raid. As a result, Israeli troops decided to detain his relatives instead.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian man after he ran over a group of Israeli settlers in East Jerusalem. Two Israelis were killed in the attack.
The two incidents come two weeks after Palestinian Abdul-Rahman Shaludi rammed his car into Israeli settlers, injuring six and killing one. Shaludi was also shot dead.
Israeli officials have condemned the attacks and accused Palestinians leaders of "inciting" hatred against Israel, but Palestinian officials have blamed the continuing Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank, increased illegal settlement construction exclusively for settlers in the city, a summer Israeli offensive on Gaza that left nearly 2,200 dead, mostly civilians, and the rising violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians for provoking anger.
The attacks come amid rising anger among Jerusalem Palestinians over widespread discrimination at the hands of Israeli authorities and Zionist settlers.
Hit and run attacks and other hate crimes by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, referred to as “price tag” attacks, are common in the West Bank and Jerusalem, and are rarely investigated or prosecuted by Israel.
On Tuesday, an Israeli settler driving through the occupied West Bank city of Beit Jala hit a Palestinian with his car on Tuesday, witnesses told Ma'an.
Locals said Ibrahim Hamdan was on his way to work when he was hit by an Israeli settler vehicle, lightly injuring him.
The sources said the settler appeared to hit Hamdan "deliberately."
According to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) monthly report, a 5-year-old Palestinian girl was killed and six other Palestinians were injured in hit and run attacks by Israeli settlers in October.
On October 30, an Israeli settler ran over and injured a 13-year-old Palestinian boy south of Nablus.
Ghassan Daghlas, an official who monitors settler activities in the northern West Bank, said at the time that 13-year-old Ibrahim Odeh was knocked down by the car on the Huwwara road.
On October 19, a five-year-old Palestinian girl, Einas Khalil, was run over and killed by a settler near the central West Bank town of Sinjil.
On September 29, an Israeli settler ran over and injured 6-year-old young Palestinian girl Islam Basim al-Amour in al-Dairat area south of Hebron.
On August 7, an 8-year old Palestinian girl was also run over by Israeli settlers near Hebron and moderately injured.
A week after that incident, on August 14, a 23-year-old Palestinian man was run over and killed by a settler car in the central West Bank.
In all incidents, witnesses and residents said they believed Israeli settlers deliberately hit Palestinians.
Back in 2013, an Israeli settler ran over a seven-year-old boy with his car as he walked to school in the West Bank town of Abu Dis.
About 550,000 Zionist settlers live in illegal settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem on lands confiscated from local Palestinian communities.
Israel occupied east Jerusalem during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the holy city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the self-proclaimed Jewish state – a move never recognized by the international community.
(Al-Akhbar, Anadolu, Ma'an)
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