Illegal Israeli settlers have set fire to Palestinian lands in the central occupied West Bank, leading to an extensive area being burned, an official said.

Lafi Adib, the mayor of Turmus Ayya village in Ramallah, said “settlers set fire to lands belonging to the villagers, and we cannot control the fire.”

“The fires are still burning strongly over tens of dunams (1 dunam= 900 square metres) in agricultural areas, while Palestinian civil defence teams are unable to contain it,” he added.

He said, “settlers have been preventing villagers from accessing their lands for months, resulting in overgrowth of weeds in olive groves.”

According to data from the Israeli non-profit Peace Now, nearly half a million Israelis live in 146 large settlements and 144 smaller outposts established in the occupied West Bank, excluding occupied East Jerusalem.

The settlers and Israeli forces have escalated their raids, arrests and attacks since the Gaza war, which began in October last year.