A large number of settlers backed by Israeli army troops entered the village of Awarta, northwest of Nablus, early on Monday and performed Jewish rituals at the Islamic holy shrines at the western side of the village, Head of Awarta village council, Hani Darawsheh, said.According to Palestinian media sources violence against the Palestinian population in the West Bank has recently increased as settlers attack Palestinians and their properties as well as holy Islamic sites.On Saturday, Israeli settlers assaulted and stabbed a Palestinian man, 38, in the southern West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).Yousef Hantash was injured in the hand when the settlers attacked him while he was walking along a bypass road near Dora in al-Khalil, located about 30 kilometers (nearly 19 miles) south of al-Quds (Jerusalem).The United Nations on Friday called on the Israeli regime to immediately stop the destruction of Palestinian houses in the occupied West Bank, Press TV reported.“In the past three days, 77 Palestinians, over half of them children, have been made homeless,” James W. Rawley, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said.According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israeli authorities have razed to the ground as many as 42 Palestinian-owned structures in Ramallah, al-Quds, Jericho, and al-Khalil since January 20.This is while according to international law, the destruction of private or public property in occupied territories is prohibited.The Israeli regime destroyed at least 359 Palestinian structures in the West Bank throughout 2014, according to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which is a non-governmental group.MR/1664