By Ali Sawafta
TAYBEH, West Bank, June 10 - Israeli settlers obstructed Palestinians putting out a large blaze near a Christian village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank late on Tuesday, a local priest and Palestinian civil defence firefighters said.
The incident comes amid rising strife in the West Bank, where some Western countries announced sanctions on settler groups this week over violent Israeli attacks on Palestinians.
Father Bashar Fawadleh, parish priest of Taybeh, said settlers had shot firearms
and surrounded people trying to take a water tanker to the site to fight the fire.
The Israeli military also temporarily stopped firefighters reaching the blaze while they arranged security coordination, Palestinian Authority Civil Defence spokesperson Nael al-Azza said.
The firefighters were eventually able to reach the fire and put it out, though settlers continued trying to obstruct them, Fawadleh and Azza said.
Israel's military did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on the incident.
'ONGOING PATTERN OF INTIMIDATION'
Reuters visited the village on Wednesday and smoke was still rising from a large area of burned hillside.
Fawadleh said he believed the fire was a result of arson, but he did not say who he thought was responsible.
"What we are experiencing is not a series of isolated incidents, but an ongoing pattern of intimidation and unjustified violence that undermines our fundamental right to safety, security, and dignity," he said in a statement.
The West Bank and Jerusalem are home to around 50,000 Palestinian Christians, members of a religious community there stretching back to antiquity in a region that is home to many of the faith's most important holy sites.
Taybeh is one of the only Christian villages remaining in the West Bank and was visited last year by the Greek Orthodox patriarch and the Roman Catholic cardinal of Jerusalem.
Around 700,000 Israeli settlers live among 3.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territories Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war, which Palestinians see as part of a future state.
A U.N. inquiry released on Tuesday found that Israeli authorities were directly involved in settler attacks that have killed, injured and displaced Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israel's mission in Geneva rejected that report's findings. Israel says its military and police maintain security in the West Bank and condemn any forms of violence.
Governance in the West Bank has been split since the 1993 Oslo Accords into different zones delineating Israeli military and Palestinian Authority control.
Parts of Taybeh are located in Area B, where the PA runs civil administration but where security control must be coordinated with Israeli authorities.
The movement and deployment of Palestinian emergency responders into Area B generally requires coordination with Israeli security bodies, Palestinians say.
Although the PA has a Civil Defence centre in Taybeh, the Israeli military prevented them accessing the site of the fire until the security coordination was complete, Azza said.
(By Ali Sawafta; Writing by Angus McDowall; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
