Home · World · Sep 29 archive
Israeli Settlers Attack West Bank Village, Injure Forces
Confirmed
In Short: Over 100 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud in the West Bank early Tuesday, injuring three Israeli security officers and damaging a security vehicle.
Over 100 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud in the West Bank early Tuesday, injuring three Israeli security officers and damaging a security vehicle.
The Israeli military said the settlers blocked roads, set tires on fire, and threw rocks at security forces, preventing a Palestinian family from returning to their home.
Mahmoud al-Toubasi, a member of the family seeking to return to Jalud, told AFP that his family had left the house more than two months ago and that it had been occupied by settlers until the attack.
Settlers also raided the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir and held a prayer in Beitunia using loudspeakers, according to local residents.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, which he blamed on a 'small group of rioters,' while President Isaac Herzog called it 'a moral stain, an assault on the rule of law and our most fundamental values as a people and a nation.
The attack on Jalud came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which has increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
Settlers set ablaze two homes belonging to the Tubasi family in Jalud, hours after the family tried to return to them under an Israeli court decision.
The fires caused extensive damage to the two homes while the attack spread panic among residents.
Local sources told Anadolu that Israeli forces provided protection to the settlers and sent additional military reinforcements to the area.
In a separate attack, settlers assaulted an elderly Palestinian woman after breaking into her home in Qaryut, south of Nablus.
The United Nations reported that settler attacks against Palestinians, including beatings, vandalism, and arson, averaged six a day in the first half of the year.
The Israeli military said the settlers' actions 'cause great harm to that community and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission.
What this adds
Settler violence has escalated since the Gaza war began in October 2023, with Israeli soldiers or settlers killing at least 1,111 Palestinians.
The attack on Jalud is part of a broader pattern of settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
The Israeli military's response to the attack has drawn criticism for not adequately protecting Palestinian residents.
Background
Israeli authorities said on Sunday they had detained a Palestinian man suspected of killing an Israeli settler in a shooting attack in the West Bank. The Israeli military reported that soldiers apprehended the suspect, who was earlier shot and wounded by a soldier at the scene.
The West Bank is the larger of the two Palestinian territories that make up Palestine. A landlocked territory located on the western bank of the Jordan River near the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia's Levant region, it is bordered by Jordan and the Dead Sea to the east, and by Israel to the south, west, and north.
What's confirmed
- Over 100 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jalud in the West Bank early Tuesday, injuring three Israeli security officers and damaging a security vehicle.
- The Israeli military said the settlers blocked roads, set tires on fire, and threw rocks at security forces, preventing a Palestinian family from returning to their home.
- Mahmoud al-Toubasi, a member of the family seeking to return to Jalud, told AFP that his family had left the house more than two months ago and that it had been occupied by settlers until the attack.
- Settlers also raided the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir and held a prayer in Beitunia using loudspeakers, according to local residents.
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack, which he blamed on a 'small group of rioters,' while President Isaac Herzog called it 'a moral stain, an assault on the rule of law and our most fundamental values as a people and a nation.
- The attack on Jalud came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which has increased since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023.
- Settlers set ablaze two homes belonging to the Tubasi family in Jalud, hours after the family tried to return to them under an Israeli court decision.
- The fires caused extensive damage to the two homes while the attack spread panic among residents.
- Local sources told Anadolu that Israeli forces provided protection to the settlers and sent additional military reinforcements to the area.
- In a separate attack, settlers assaulted an elderly Palestinian woman after breaking into her home in Qaryut, south of Nablus.
- The United Nations reported that settler attacks against Palestinians, including beatings, vandalism, and arson, averaged six a day in the first half of the year.
- The Israeli military said the settlers' actions 'cause great harm to that community and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission.
What's still developing
- "As a result of the clashes, three Israel Border Police officers were lightly injured, and a security forces vehicle was damaged," it said in a statement.
- In a separate incident in the town of Beitunia near Ramallah, dozens of settlers came to hold a prayer for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot using loudspeakers, Mayor Ribhi Dawla told AFP.
- It added that the attack had prevented the return of the family, who had been displaced "following several incidents of (Israeli) nationalist crime against them".
- “Authorities have a responsibility to protect the population from violence, including when that violence is inflicted by settlers. What international humanitarian law says on the protection of private and public property and on the population’s access to essential services must be respected,” he said.
- The settlers returned during the night and set the house on fire, destroying it and rendering it uninhabitable, he added.