JERUSALEM, Jun 21 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties, in the northern West Bank last night, to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israeli settlers hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
In the northern West Bank town of Huwara, several cars and olive trees owned by Palestinians were torched by Jewish settlers, and gunshots were heard in the area, the Hebrew-language Channel 13 TV news reported.
Around 50 settlers rallied near the Tapuah junction, north of the settlement of Eli, where two Palestinian gunmen shot and killed four settlers at a gas station hours earlier. Another group of settlers hurled stones at a Palestinian truck driver and sprayed him with tear gas, reported the Israeli media.
An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed that, settlers gathered at the entrance to the town of Beit Furik near Huwara, in an attempt to enter the town.
About four months ago, hundreds of Israeli settlers raided Huwara and other Palestinian villages nearby, in a late-night rampage, setting the town ablaze, leaving one Palestinian civilian dead and about 100 others injured. The incident marked the most severe spasm of settler violence in the West Bank in decades.
Israeli National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, visited the scene of the shooting, urging the government to launch a large-scale military campaign in the West Bank.
He called on the Israeli Cabinet to “go on a wide military operation and resume the policy of targeted assassinations in the West Bank.”
Ben-Gvir, a settler and leader of the ultranationalist party, Jewish Power, urged the Israeli army to take down Palestinian attackers’ buildings and impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis.
Finance Minister, Betzalel Smotrich and Minister of National Missions, Orit Strook, both from the far-right Religious Zionism party, also visited the site of the attack and called for a wide-scale offensive.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, convened a security assessment in the Central Command headquarters in Tel Aviv with the army’s chief-of-staff, the director of the Shin Bet internal security service, and other senior officials.
“I would like to remind all those who seek to harm us: All options are open,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
Yesterday afternoon, two Palestinians drove from the Palestinian village of Urif in the northern West Bank to a gas station outside the Jewish settlement of Eli, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah and stormed a hummus restaurant.
The attack came, a day after Israeli forces, supported by a rare use of an attack helicopter, killed six Palestinians and injured at least 90 others, in hours-long gunbattle in Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
The West Bank was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Despite international criticism, Israel has maintained control over the territory, where the Palestinians wish to establish their future state.– NNN-MA’AN
