West Bank sees biggest settler rampage since war in Gaza began as Israeli teen’s body is found
Al MUGHAYYIR, West Bank — Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank went on the largest rampage against Palestinians there since the war in Gaza began, as Israel’s army said Saturday the body of a missing Israeli teen was found after he was killed. Witnesses said settlers assaulted a number of communities.
The Israeli military said dozens of people, Palestinians and Israelis, were injured in confrontations in several locations Saturday, with shots fired and rocks thrown. Several companies with the defense forces were deployed and “all of the incidents have concluded,” it asserted.
The disappearance of 14-year-old Binyamin Achimair sparked attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinian villages on Friday and Saturday. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant in a statement on social media urged people not to take the law into their own hands in the territory where tensions have simmered for months.
On Friday, Palestinian Jehad Abu Alia was killed and 25 others were wounded in the attack on Al Mughayyir village, Palestinian health officials said. On Saturday, Israeli troops delayed for several hours the ambulance carrying the 26-year-old man’s body for burial, witnesses said.
Religious Zionists, most believing in a divine right to govern, now have outsize influence in Israel. The war in the Gaza Strip is energizing their settlement push.
Dozens of Israeli settlers returned to the village’s outskirts on Saturday, burning 12 homes and several cars. The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people from the village were injured, one critically. Border police fired tear gas toward villagers who gathered, trying to disperse them.
“They entered the house and burned it and burned cars, as you can see,” 42-year-old Akef Abu Allu said, looking at his blackened two-story home in Al Mughayyir.
In the nearby village of Douma, Israeli settlers set fire to about 15 homes and 10 farms, said the head of the local village council, Slieman Dawabsheh. “The army came but unfortunately, the army were protecting the settlers,” he said, asserting that soldiers fired tear gas and rubber bullets at Palestinians.
The Israeli military didn’t respond to questions. The Palestinian Red Crescent said six people were injured by gunfire but did not say who fired.
Palestinians in Jenin refugee camp, a center of West Bank resistance, say repeated Israeli raids appear intended to make their city as uninhabitable as Gaza.
The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din said at least 10 villages in the West Bank were attacked by Israeli settlers, with homes and vehicles damaged.
Tensions in the West Bank have been especially high since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza on Oct. 7, sparked by the Hamas attack on southern Israel in which at least 1,200 people were killed and about 240 taken hostage. More than 33,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israel’s bombardments and ground attacks, according to Gaza health officials.
More than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the West Bank since Oct. 7, most in clashes sparked by army raids but some by vigilante settlers.
Experts say Israel’s deadly raid on a West Bank hospital may have violated international laws, including a ban on combatants posing as doctors or civilians.
Violence surges in the West Bank as Israel increases raids to root out militants. Palestinians say the military is using the war as an excuse to crack down.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the killing of the teen Achimair. “We will get to the murderers and their helpers as we do to anyone who harms the citizens of the state of Israel,” he said in a statement issued by his office. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the killing.
According to Israeli media, the teen was last seen leaving the settler outpost of Malachei Shalom early Friday to tend to livestock nearby. Israel’s Channel 13 TV reported that Achimair’s body was discovered by a drone. The broadcaster said he was not shot but did not elaborate.
In 2014, the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank escalated tensions and eventually ignited a 50-day Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, at the time the deadliest round of fighting between the two sides.
Consecutive Israeli governments have expanded Israeli settlement construction in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories captured by Israel in 1967 but which the Palestinians seek for a future state, along with Gaza. More than 700,000 Israelis now live in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank.
Some West Bank settlements are highly developed and resemble suburbs of Israeli cities, while smaller outposts often have only a few caravans.
The scores of settlements across the occupied West Bank are not authorized, though the government gives them tacit support. The international community overwhelmingly considers all West Bank settlements illegal and obstacles to peace.
Nasser and Jeffery write for the Associated Press.
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