Israeli settlers attacked farmland belonging to the historic Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh , east of Ramallah, setting fields ablaze as part of a continuing wave of settler violence across the occupied West Bank .
Palestinian media and local sources said groups of settlers entered the area around Taybeh on Tuesday evening and set fire to agricultural land on the village's outskirts, in the central highlands of the occupied West Bank. No injuries were reported.
The attack targeted one of the last entirely Christian Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank, which has a population of about 1,340 people, amplifying fears among residents over repeated settler incursions and land seizures in recent months.
Residents reported that fires spread across fields near the village before being brought under control, amid concerns that the attacks were meant to pressure villagers to leave and to facilitate settlement expansion in the area.
BREAKING: Taybeh, the last Palestinian Christian village in the West Bank, is on fire!
Local residents report that Israeli settlers torched the fields. pic.twitter.com/JDcuK27KXN — Kegham Balian (@kbalian90) June 9, 2026 Speaking to The New Arab , the general supervisor of the Al-Baydar human rights organisation, Fares Malihat, described the incident as part of a pattern of swelling Israeli settler violence.
Malihat also noted that Israeli occupation forces "moved new caravans to the settlement outpost established on the summit of Mount Ebal in the city of Nablus, in the northern West Bank," warning that such moves entrench new facts on the ground and further undermine Palestinian rights.
The incident comes amid a broader surge in Israeli settler assaults on Palestinian towns and villages across the West Bank, often carried out under the protection or in the presence of Israeli forces.
Taybeh has previously come under attack from settlers, including assaults on homes and religious sites like the historic al-Khader Church.
Earlier in June, Israeli soldiers attempted to halt preparations for a Marian festival in the Christian town, which prompted church leaders to raise the alarm over growing pressure on Christian communities in the area.
Al-Baydar and other rights groups say the expansion of settlement outposts, including through the installation of caravans, is closely tied to attacks on nearby Palestinian communities, who face land confiscation, movement restrictions and repeated harassment by settlers.
Church leaders and local officials from Taybeh have appealed to the international community to monitor the situation and to pressure Israel to rein in settlers and halt the establishment of new outposts around Palestinian population centres.
Israeli soldiers and settler attacks have killed at least 1,169 Palestinians across the occupied West Bank since October 2023, with military raids leading to the arrest of more than 23,000 people since then.