The violent aggression last night by Israeli settlers in various towns in the Nablus area, in the north of the occupied West Bank, left a Palestinian dead, more than a hundred Palestinians injured, and extensive material damage with at least 75 houses burned and more than a hundred cars , in what appears to be the worst outbreak of settler violence in decades.
Among the damage to homes, at least 35 were completely destroyed and some forty partially damaged, according to the Palestinian media that documented the events last night.
Hundreds of settlers - 400 according to a Palestinian settlement guard - stormed the Palestinian towns of Huwara, Burin, Zatara, Odala and Asira al Qabaliyya on Sunday night, armed with knives, sticks, stones, and even firearms. , to commit attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for the attack hours before by a Palestinian who shot dead two settlers.
The deceased were identified as Hilel and Yagel Yaniv, two brothers aged 22 and 20 respectively, who lived in the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha, a few kilometers from Huwara. In addition, 37-year-old Palestinian Sameh Hamdala was shot dead last night by settlers in the abdomen in the village of Zatara, the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed.
The Red Crescent reported that it treated more than a hundred injured and that three of its ambulances were attacked by settlers while doing their work. Images posted on social media show settlers killing an entire herd of sheep and uprooting olive trees and other crops from Palestinian farmers. Before the attacks, a senior Israeli cabinet minister and settler leader had called on Israel to attack "without mercy."
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemned what he called "terrorist acts" committed by "settlers under the protection of the occupying forces." "We hold the Israeli government fully accountable," added the leader of the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank.
Israel sent hundreds more troops into the occupied West Bank, an already heavily militarized area, on Monday. The response to the attack exposed divisions in Israel's new right-wing government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing for calm while a member of his ruling coalition hailed the uproar as a deterrent against Palestinian attacks.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed his "strong condemnation" of the settler attack. "Taking the law into your own hands, causing riots and committing acts of violence against innocents: this is not our way, and I express my strong condemnation," the president said in a statement. Herzog indicated that it should be the Israeli security forces that "arrest the despicable terrorist and restore order immediately."
Last night's episodes raise doubts about the Jordanian declaration sealed by Israeli and Palestinian officials on Sunday afternoon, where they promised to calm the wave of violence in the area. "The two parties, Palestinian and Israeli, affirmed their commitment to all previous agreements between them, as well as to achieving just and permanent peace," according to a final statement issued at the end of the meeting, which they attended as mediators. representatives of the United States, Egypt and Jordan.
In the last year, there have been both attacks by settlers and attacks by Palestinians, in addition to the intense, often violent, raids that the Israeli army has been carrying out regularly for a year in the West Bank, especially in the north, in the Nablus and Jenin area.
In fact, last Wednesday eleven Palestinians died in clashes with Israeli troops as a result of an incursion, the deadliest incident in the West Bank since 2005, when the UN began recording this data.
So far this year, 63 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict, the most violent start to a year since 2000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, and after 2022 ended as the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the end of the Second Intifada. On the Israeli side, 13 people have died, most of them settlers, victims of Palestinian attacks.
Palestinians claim the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, for a future state. Some 700,000 Israeli settlers occupy the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The international community agrees that the settlements are illegal and obstacles to peace, although it does not sanction Israel for it. The West Bank is home to a number of hardline settlements whose residents frequently vandalize Palestinian land and property. But rarely has violence reached levels as high as the present moment.
Leading members of Israel's far-right government have called for stronger action against the Palestinians. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a leader among settlers who lives in the area and has been put in charge of much of Israel's West Bank politics, called to "attack the cities of terror and their instigators without mercy , with tanks and helicopters". However, on Sunday night, Smotrich appealed to his fellow settlers to let the army and government do his job. "Taking the law into your own hands and creating dangerous lawlessness that could spiral out of control and cost lives is prohibited," he said.
Tzvika Foghel, a deputy from the ultranationalist and anti-Arab Jewish Power party, a partner in the current government, viewed the attack "with good eyes" as it would help deter Palestinian attacks, he said in an interview with Army Radio. The leader of said party, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is Israel's Minister of Public Security, has not yet ruled on the matter.
The European Union said it was "alarmed by" the violence in Hawara and that "authorities on both sides" should "intervene now to stop this endless cycle of violence." UK Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan stressed that "Israel should address settler violence and bring those responsible to justice."
Recent events have also underscored the limitations of the traditional US approach to the Palestinian conflict: Washington has been trying to avoid an escalation while staying away from the politically costly task of pressing for resolution of central disputes and while continue to support Israel.
