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. The report said that about 10 Israeli military vehicles entered the village, as Palestinian Civil Defense crews dispatched from the nearby towns of Salfit, Aqraba, Burin, Sinjil and Abwein tackled the blaze. Hundreds of residents also helped to fight the fire, several of whom suffered the effects of smoke inhalation. Palestine Red Crescent Society teams from Salfit provided first aid to those injured at the scene. Al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya is surrounded by the Israeli settlements of Eli and Maele Levona. There are 279 settlements in the West Bank, including 14 in East Jerusalem, which are home to about 737,000 settlers. The West Bank is home to about 3.4 million Palestinians.