Israeli settlers launch arson attack on scrapyard in West Bank village

LONDON: Israeli settlers on Wednesday set fire to a vehicle scrapyard, destroying more than 100 vehicles, in the Palestinian village of al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya in the occupied West Bank.

The attack happened in the al-Qanater neighborhood of the village, which is located south of Nablus.

The fire, which raged for five hours, spread beyond the scrapyard, damaging vehicles belonging to residents and others at a nearby repair workshop, the Palestine News Agency reported.

The village head said that the cost of the blaze had been estimated at more than 1 million shekels ($315,000) and that dozens of olive trees, storage facilities and streetlight poles had been burned, cutting off electricity to the area.