Jewish settlers torched 20 cars during an attack on Palestinian property on the outskirts of Ramallah on Monday, residents said, in one of their boldest raids yet in the area that serves as the Palestinians’ seat of government in the occupied West Bank.

Around a dozen attackers, masked and carrying petrol bombs, targeted the Al-Bireh area, which adjoins Ramallah, at around 0100 GMT, torching the cars in a matter of minutes, they said.

Resident Ihab al-Zaben said he yelled at the settlers but they carried on burning the vehicles regardless. “When we came down to try to extinguish the fire, they started shooting at us,” he said.

The facade of a residential building was left blackened by fires set in cars that had been parked outside.

The Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency were investigating after receiving a report that a number of Palestinian cars had been burned, the Israeli police spokesperson said in a statement.

Settler violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank has drawn condemnation internationally and led to sanctions on violent settlers by some governments, notably the US, which has urged Israel to do more to stop the attacks. The Palestinian Authority, based in Ramallah, condemned “the brutal attack by settler militias”.