On Sunday, two young Israeli settlers – brothers aged 20 and 22 – were shot dead in their car in the Palestinian town of Huwara. The Israeli government spoke of a “terrorist Palestinian attack”.
According to the Palestinian Red Cross, hundreds of Palestinians were injured in the subsequent riots by Israeli settlers. A 37-year-old Palestinian was shot dead in the village of Saatara near the city of Nablus, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Accordingly, this happened when Israeli soldiers and settlers attacked the site.
According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, dozens of Israeli settlers set fire to several Palestinian houses in Huwara during the riots. A city official reported that 30 houses were burned and damaged and more than 100 cars were set on fire. An AFP photographer saw dozens of charred houses, burnt-out cars and smashed windows. More than 350 Palestinians were injured, mostly by tear gas, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.
The Israeli army is trying to “de-escalate the situation and keep the two sides apart in this very, very difficult situation,” an Israeli army official told journalists. A police spokesman told the AFP news agency that eight Israelis had been arrested for Sunday night’s events, but most of them have been released.
The US government condemns “the horrific killing” of the three Israelis and the “widespread, indiscriminate violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians” following the killings, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday. The Israeli government must ensure the criminal prosecution of those responsible, it said.
The federal government condemned “the attack in which two Israeli citizens (…) were killed” in the strongest possible terms, as a spokesman for the Foreign Office said on Monday. Nothing can justify “such acts of terrorism,” he added. Acts of revenge by Israeli settlers in Huwara are “completely unacceptable and must be effectively prevented and criminally clarified”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for calm in a video: “Even if the blood is boiling”, nobody should “take the law into their own hands”. Israeli President Isaac Herzog strongly condemned the acts of revenge. “Taking the law into your own hands, rioting and committing acts of violence against innocent people – that’s not our style,” he said.
Netanyahu and Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir previously said the two Israeli settlers had been killed in a “Palestinian terrorist attack”. No one initially claimed responsibility for the attack. However, the militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad spoke of a “heroic effort”.
The escalation of violence came despite senior Israeli and Palestinian officials meeting in Jordan on Sunday for the first time in years. At the “intensive and open talks” in the port city of Aqaba on the Red Sea, in which representatives from Jordan, Egypt and the USA also took part, both sides agreed, according to a joint statement, to work towards “de-escalation” and “to prevent new violence”.
The meeting was arranged after months of violent clashes between Palestinians and the Israeli army.
