Israeli settlers set fire to mosques, cars and farm land in West Bank, Palestinians say

Kaied Ahmad Turabi, from Miami, was visiting his parents and sister in the village when the attack happened. He was filmed fighting with settlers on a neighbour’s porch.

He was just out of hospital when he spoke to the BBC. He had a large black eye, several cuts and bruises, and a wound on his head that he said had needed 12 stitches.

“I worked all my life with Jewish people, but these people… they all had covered faces, all of them had a lot of stuff – sticks, and things in their pockets. They came ready,” he said.

Hours later, we were with residents watching the back entrance to the village when settlers were spotted on its outskirts again.

We watched dozens of young men stream up the road, answering a call to barricade and defend the village.

Israeli soldiers stood guard to separate the groups, as the settlers slowly melted away.

For the Palestinians, it was a different method of crowd control – tear gas fired repeatedly to push them back down the road.

Some young men ran through clouds of gas to try and bury the cannisters with soil, or kick them away to chants of “Palestine, Palestine”, as the soldiers steadily advanced.

Israel’s military said on Sunday it was working to prevent “incidents of nationalist crime” – its term for attacks by extremist Israeli settlers there.

But while Israeli leaders publicly condemn extremist violence, they have overseen a rapid growth in the wildcat settlement outposts that human rights groups say are fuelling attacks on Palestinians.

Israel’s prime minister said he would speed up the establishment and legalisation of farm outposts in the West Bank, in response to the killing of Israelis in Tal on Friday.

New Israeli outposts have already appeared in the area since then – one near Sarra is visible from the main road.