Hebron/PNN/

Scores of Israeli settlers last night attacked Palestinian vehicles and terrorized civilians at roads and junctions east of the city of Hebron, in the south of the occupied West Bank, according to witnesses and local sources.

Local sources said groups of Israeli settler extremists from the settlements of Kiryat Arba, Harsina, and Havat Gal attacked many vehicles and pelted stones at some of them in the presence of Israeli soldiers, causing damage to many of them. No injuries were reported.

Meantime in the north of the West Bank, confrontations broke out between the Israeli army and local Palestinian residents who foiled an attack on the village of Hares, in the Salfit province, during which four local Palestinians were injured by rubber-coated rounds fired at them by the soldiers.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is commonplace in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli authorities.

There are over 600,000 Israeli settlers illegally occupying portions of the West Bank in violation of international law and established norms prohibiting the relocation of the occupying power's civil population to the land of the occupied.

Also in Hebron hardline Israeli settlers today uprooted and chopped off about 20 olive trees for Palestinian farmers in the village of Al-Tuwani, south of the occupied West Bank province of Hebron, according to local sources.

Rateb Jabour, a local Palestinian activist, told journalists that a group of Israeli settlers from the illegal settlement of Maon uprooted and chopped off nearly 20 olive trees belonging to local Palestinian citizens.

Although violence and vandalism by Israeli settlers are commonplace throughout the year, attacks and acts of vandalism by Israeli settlers intensified during the past six months across the occupied West Bank, especially in the north of the territory.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians and their property is routine in the West Bank and is rarely prosecuted by Israeli occupation authorities.

There are over 600,000 Israeli settlers living in colonial settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem in violation of international law and consensus.