Settlers attack Israeli army
In Israel raises concerns about escalating violence by Jewish settlers West Bank to. The reason is that the attacks in the occupied territories are increasingly directed against Israeli security forces and civilians. On Thursday night, several dozen settlers in the town of Huwara threw stones at Palestinian cars.
When soldiers arrived, the commander and another soldier were attacked with pepper spray, according to the army. Something similar happened later at a crossroads a few kilometers further south. The police arrested a suspect in the morning. As was later reported, he lives in a settlement and belongs to the army.
Numerous politicians condemned the attack. prime minister Jair Lapid spoke on Twitter of “dangerous criminals” who “must be held accountable without hesitation and with all severity”. They endangered the lives of soldiers and harmed Israel, Lapid wrote. Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu also criticized the attack, but warned against “staining” the entire settler community “because of the wrong actions of a few”.
Popular right-wing politician Itamar Ben-Gvir made defense minister Benny Gantz responsible for the violence. Gantz let the “heroic settlers” down. In addition, the army concealed the fact that Palestinians had thrown stones before the settlers attacked. In Israel there will be elections on November 1st.
Regular attacks
Huwara, through which the main thoroughfare in the northern West Bank runs, has become a flashpoint of settler violence for months. Around the town south of Nablus there are several settlements whose residents are considered violent. Palestinians in the area regularly complain of attacks on their villages and lands. The army is often accused of not taking consistent action against the settlers or even showing solidarity with them. Earlier this week, an investigation was launched into a military police officer who fired on several Palestinian houses in Huwara after stones were thrown at his car.
Violent attacks are also common elsewhere in the West Bank. Masked settlers attacked Palestinians during the olive harvest near Bethlehem on Wednesday. Several Israeli activists were also injured.
Attacks by Palestinians on settlers and security forces in the West Bank have also increased. On Wednesday night, guards shot dead a Palestinian as he attacked the entrance to the Maade Adumim settlement. It was Uday Tamimi, who shot and killed an Israeli border police officer in an attack on a checkpoint in east Jerusalem in early October. He then fled to a nearby refugee camp and hid there. The army largely sealed off the camp, which triggered protests. However, she was unsuccessful in catching Tamimi by Wednesday evening. Both the secular Fatah and the Islamist Hamas have now claimed the 22-year-old man as a member. Several Palestinian parties have called for protests and a strike in the West Bank in response to his death. On Thursday afternoon, clashes erupted between Palestinians and Israeli security forces in numerous locations in the West Bank.
