By Ali Sawafta
AL-MUGHAYYER, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli settlers who rampaged through the West Bank village of al-Mughayyer on April 12 arrived in larger numbers and carried more weapons than in any previous raid on the Palestinian community, they said the residents.
Days later, burned houses and cars still bear witness to the attack, which residents say lasted several hours and that Israeli soldiers did nothing to stop it.
With few means to defend themselves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they fear such attacks on the village the most.
“We have stones and their weapons, and the army supports the settlers,” said Abdullatif Abu Alia, whose house was attacked. Its roof was splattered with the blood of wounded Palestinians as they tried to repel the attackers with stones. One of them, his relative Jihad Abu Alia, was shot dead, he said.
“Of course, the goal is to force displacement,” he added.
Al-Mughayyer was one of several Palestinian villages attacked by settlers over several days starting April 12, an escalation that began after the disappearance of a 14-year-old Israeli man. His body was discovered not far from al-Mughayyer the next day.
Israel said he was killed in a terrorist attack.
Violence in the West Bank, occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, was already on the rise before the Gaza war began in October, fueling further bloodshed in the territory.
Settler violence is a source of growing concern among Israel’s Western allies. Numerous countries, including the United States, have imposed sanctions on violent settlers and urged Israel to do more to stop the violence.
Washington imposed sanctions Friday on an ally of Israel’s far-right national security minister and two entities raising money for Israeli men accused of settler violence.
The Israeli army said clashes spread to the area following the killing of the teenager and included “exchanges of gunfire, mutual stone-throwing and burning of property in which Israeli civilians were injured and Palestinians”.
Asked about residents’ allegations that soldiers had done nothing to stop al-Mughayyer’s attack, the military said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and security forces operated with the aim of protecting ” the properties and lives of all citizens and disperse the clashes”.
GUN WOUNDS
Ameen Abu Alia, the head of al-Mughayyer municipal council, said 45 Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds in the attack, which began after hundreds of settlers gathered on a road near the village.
Israeli troops arrived shortly before it began, setting up roadblocks and a cordon that left houses on the outskirts of the village cut off from the center, meaning villagers could not go to help those who were under attack, he said. said.
The soldiers also prevented ambulances from reaching the area to treat the wounded, he said.
The Israeli army said the ambulances “were delayed for a security check and then were cleared to continue.”
Abu Alia, the head of the municipal council, accused the Israeli army of providing security for the settler raid, which the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said had been “accompanied by Israeli forces”.
Complaints about soldiers’ behavior not complying with orders will be investigated, the Israeli army said.
Israel has extensively colonized the West Bank since 1967, considering it biblical Judea and Samaria and critical to Israel’s security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of settlement growth has drawn criticism from the United States.
The settlements have devoured the territory of the West Bank where the Palestinians have long aimed to create an independent state that would also include the Gaza Strip and have East Jerusalem as its capital.
FIRE TRUCK SET ON FIRE, SHEEP STOLEN
Shehadah Abu Rasheed, who burned his house during the attack, pitched a tent to provide temporary shelter. Inside, the walls of the house were charred. Abu Rasheed said his wife was shot by a settler and one of his four children was slightly wounded by gunfire.
Settlers also set fire to a fire truck sent to al-Mughayyer by the Palestinian Civil Defense Service during the attack, the Civil Defense said. His charred remains were being loaded onto a truck when Reuters journalists visited them on Wednesday.
OCHA reported that settlers completely burned 21 houses in al-Mughayyer, displacing 86 Palestinians, that 32 vehicles were damaged and approximately 220 sheep were killed or stolen.
It is not confirmed whether the Palestinian man who died during the raid was killed by Israeli forces or settlers.
Four of the seven Palestinians killed in the West Bank between April 12 and 15 died in incidents involving Israeli settlers in a series of attacks on Palestinian communities during and after the search for the 14-year-old Israeli, OCHA said. Another Palestinian man was killed in a settler raid on April 20, the Palestinian health ministry said.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have imposed sanctions on violent settlers in recent months.
U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in an April 15 briefing that Washington condemned last weekend’s violence against Palestinians as strongly as it condemned the killing of the 14-year-old Israeli boy. The United States has said it is “incredibly concerned” that Israeli security forces are not doing enough to stop settler violence, he said.
Al-Mughayyer is located in a part of the West Bank where Israel has full control of security under interim peace deals that Palestinian leaders signed three decades ago in the belief they would eventually lead to an independent state.
The agreements mean that most of the West Bank is off-limits to Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority security forces. Abdullatif Abu Alia, a resident of al-Mughayyer, said the most he hoped for from the Palestinian government was help in erecting a protective fence around his house and reinforcing the windows.
“What else can they do? They can’t even protect themselves,” he said, referring to Israeli raids on Palestinian cities.