New Videos Show Alleged Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank
Newsweek has reached out to Israel's Security Agency (ISA) and the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), as well as the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Ministry and the Palestinian Red Cross Society (PRCS) for comment.
The attack highlights mounting violence in the West Bank at the same time as the war in Gaza is intensifying again, fueling deeper divisions and increasingly extremist rhetoric that further imperils prospects of Israeli-Palestinian peace or the chance of the two-state solution to the Middle East conflict that is supported by much of the world.
Violence is not confined to the region, with two Israeli embassy staff shot dead outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC and President Donald Trump condemned what he called "horrible killings" based on antisemitism.
Video footage circulating on social media, as well as some published by Al-Jazeera, showed houses and cars ablaze, as screams were heard in the background. Residents broadcast urgent calls for help through mosque loudspeakers in efforts to contain the fires, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
About 40 Israeli settlers raided the West Bank village of Bruqin, torching five vehicles and two gardens, with the group fleeing as Israeli forces arrived, according to Israeli website Yedioth Ahronoth.
The Israeli police is also investigating a separate incident where settlers torched a mosque and a vehicle near Usarin and Aqraba, south of Nablus, leaving graffiti reading "Am Israel Chai" (The People of Israel Live) and "Jewish blood is not worthless," it reported.
There have been no reports of arrests in both attacks.
Earlier this week, Israeli forces said they killed a Hamas operative in the town of Bruqin identified as the man who shot an Israeli woman and her husband while on their to deliver her baby-the mother later dying at hospital, according to The Times of Israel.
In January, IDF Central Commander Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth condemned extremist settlers following an attack on the Palestinian village of Al-Funduq in the West Bank's Efraim region, saying violent disturbances will not be tolerated and that a probe had been launched, according to The Jerusalem Post.
The West Bank hosts around three million Palestinians and some 500,000 Jewish settlers in over 100 settlements deemed illegal under international law. These settlements are seen a major obstacle to peace and a central issue in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian Foreign Ministry on X: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs renews its call for deterrent international action to stop the organized terrorist attacks by #settler gangs. The crimes committed by settlers in Bruqin and other areas are organized and planned with the aim of displacing our people."
Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told the Times of Israel: "Upon receiving the report, troops were dispatched to the scene. The suspects fled the area before the troops arrived and the incident is under further investigation."
Some Palestinian families told media channels they would leave the area fearing more violence could threaten their lives.
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