&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "Over 100 Israeli settlers attack West Bank village, burn Palestinian homes")
Over 100 Israeli extremist settlers attacked a village in the north of the occupied West Bank, burning two Palestinian homes as they tried to halt the return of a Palestinian family, and lightly injuring three Israeli security personnel in the process. Tuesday's assault received a rare condemnation from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government actively promoted West Bank settlement expansion to block the creation of a Palestinian State.
The Israeli military said “more than 100 Israeli rioters” were in the area of Jalud overnight, as they attempted to block the return of a Tubasi family to their home, who had fled previously after a sustained campaign of harassment and violence by local settlers.
Israeli Police said that they have arrested one suspect and taken two for questioning. The military said that the settlers have blocked roads, set tyres on fire, thrown rocks at security forces, and set fire to Palestinian buildings.
“My wife, my son and I went to the house in the car, accompanied by an army vehicle in front of us and another behind us,” said Mahmoud al-Toubasi, a member of the Tublasi family. Settlers attacked them as they tried to enter. “We were not physically injured, but we suffered some choking from the pepper spray,” said Toubasi.
“As a result of the clashes, three Israel Border Police officers were lightly injured, and a security forces vehicle was damaged,” said Israeli Police in a statement.
Israeli Prime Minister condemned the violence while trying to maintain his agenda of systemic settler expansion, which the UN has termed “ethnic cleansing”. He blamed the violence on a “small group of rioters” and claimed that they do not "represent the law-abiding settler community in Judea and Samaria…their actions cause great harm to that community and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission". Israeli President Issac Herzog also said that “the arson, stone-throwing, assault, and injury of IDF soldiers and Border Police officers... are strictly forbidden and can have no justification whatsoever”.
Israel has maintained control over the West Bank since June 1967; there have been instances of settler violence and harassment by the Israeli military. But the violence in the West Bank has increased since the October 7, 2023, Al-Aqsa flood by Hamas.
