The wave of attacks carried out in recent days in the occupied West Bank by violent Israeli settlers, who, hiding under masks, set fire to vehicles and properties of Palestinian farmers, They attacked journalists and even confronted soldiershas caused deep indignation in Israel. Criticism of these violent acts is increasingly numerous, although Benjamin Netanyahu’s Government opts for silence.
The Israeli president, Isaac Herzogand senior commanders of the Israel Defense Forces have condemned the latest attacks recorded this week and have called to stop the spiral of violence. Herzog has described the events as “shocking and serious”urging “all state authorities to act decisively to eradicate this phenomenon.”
“These acts contradict our values, cross a red line and divert the attention of our troops from their mission: defending communities and carrying out operations. We are determined to stop this phenomenon and will act firmly until justice is done,” he said Eyal Zamirchief of the Israeli General Staff, after visiting the West Bank this Wednesday, where troops have carried out maneuvers.
Reuters journalist Raneen Sawafta was injured during one of the settler attacks.
Reuters
Critics of the coalition government have accused Netanyahu’s cabinet of tacitly support the attacks of the settlers for not doing anything to stop or condemn them. The Israeli Army commander in charge of the West Bank, Avi Bluth, has also asked soldiers to intervene and try to prevent “any act of nationalist crime.”
Even from the United States it has been recognized that there is “some concern” in case the violence continues to escalate and thus puts the peace agreement for the Gaza Strip at risk, as he acknowledged Marco Rubiohead of diplomacy for the Trump Administration.
The settlers They burned at least four trucks and injured several people east of the West Bank city of Tulkarem last Tuesday. The Israeli army reported that the violent men who attacked the villages fled to a nearby industrial zone and then clashed with soldiers who were trying to subdue them, damaging a military vehicle. The Police indicated that four Israelis were arrested -three of them are already free- and four other Palestinians were injured.
According to the story of neighbors and activists, they are the same uniformed settlers – often reservists who live in settlements and outposts – those who attack Palestinian populations without intervention from the Israeli Army or Police until the action has ended.
Israeli soldiers in the village of Beit Lid, in the occupied West Bank.
Reuters
The episode recorded on Tuesday in the occupied West Bank, to which is added a mosque burned and painted with racist slogans between the towns of Deir Istiya and Kafr Haris, are the latest in a series of attacks carried out by young settlers that have intensified since the war broke out in the Gaza Strip two years ago. The assaults have worsened in recent weeks, coinciding with the annual olive harvest carried out by Palestinian farmers.
The UN humanitarian office reported last week that October saw more attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank than in any other month since it began keeping track in 2006: more than 260. The Palestinians denounce that this is a campaign to expel them from their land and have demanded sanctions against groups that “sponsor and support the terrorist colonial settlement project.”
Amjad Amer Al-Juneidi, a worker at a dairy factory that was attacked on Tuesday, said that during the “totally organized” assault he saw a person carrying drums full of gasolineanother forcing the factory door with a crowbar and a third setting the fuel on fire: “Their entry into the facility was not accidental. They had a tactic on how to set the fire.”