Nablus – Ma'an – Residents of Israel's illegal Yitzhar settlement stormed the nearby Palestinian village of Burin in Nablus on Monday, a Palestinian Authority official told Ma'an.

Ghassan Daghlas, who holds the PA's settlement portfolio in the northern West Bank, said dozens of settlers assaulted residents and caused damage to property.

The episode sparked clashes between village residents and the settlers, but no one was injured, Daghlas said.

An Israeli security source confirmed that "there was a bit of a standoff between Israelis and Palestinians" in the village. Israeli forces were dispatched to the areas and dispersed the two groups, who threw stones at one another, the source said, adding that there were no injuries.

On Saturday, 15 Yitzhar settlers reportedly attempted to set fire to the home of Ayman Attalla Safwan in the same village. Witnesses told Ma'an that Israeli Civil Administration forces were deployed following the incident.

Israeli Border Police spokesman Moshe Finsi did not immediately return a phone call seeking a comment for this report.

Also on Monday Israel’s Civil Administration, the branch of the military that administers the West Bank, said that it began enforcing an order to ban most construction in settlements outside of Jerusalem.

Civil Administration spokesman Lee Hiromoto told Ma’an that Civil Administration employees accompanied by security forces began enforcing the order, with authorization to confiscate construction equipment.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the partial freeze on settlement expansion last week in response to US pressure to ban all such construction.

The US said the freeze, which does not apply to large settlements on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem, public buildings and thousands of buildings already under construction, fell short of its demands.

The Palestinian Authority also said the partial slowdown would not bring it back to the negotiating table.

Peace talks were broken off in December 2008 as Israel launched a war on Gaza that left more than 1,400 Palestinians dead. Thirteen Israelis also died.