The violent attack on Sunday night by Israeli settlers in a town south of Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank, left a Palestinian dead, more than a hundred Palestinians injured and extensive material damage to at least 75 houses. and more than a hundred cars burned, in what appears to be the worst outbreak of settler violence in decades.
Hundreds of settlers (some 400, according to a Palestinian settlement guard) stormed the Palestinian town of Huwara on Sunday night, armed with knives, sticks, stones and even firearms to commit attacks against Palestinians in retaliation for the hours earlier 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 Brajá, a few kilometers from Huwara. In addition, Palestinian Sameh Hamdala, 37, was fatally shot in the abdomen by a settler in Zatara, south of Huwara. During the attack, settlers killed an entire herd of sheep, uprooted olive trees, or danced in front of a burned-out house.
Israel yesterday sent additional troops to the already heavily militarized area. "Difficult days await us," predicted Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant as he toured the town.
The response to the attack exposed divisions in the new right-wing government, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealing for calm, while a leading member of Jewish Power, in his ruling coalition, hailed the riot as a shock to the Palestinian attacks. Before the destruction, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader, had called on Israel to attack the area "ruthlessly, with tanks and helicopters." The country's president, Isaac Herzog, expressed his "strong condemnation" of the attack and rejected justice being taken into his own hand. Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas condemned what he called "terrorist acts" committed "under the protection of the occupying forces."
The episodes on Sunday cast doubt on agreements reached in Jordan a few hours earlier, in which Israeli and Palestinian officials pledged to de-escalate violence in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, occupied by some 700,000 Israeli settlers.
Israeli police arrested eight settlers; six were released.
