West Bank villagers fear future assaults following Israeli rampage
RESIDENTS of the West Bank village of al-Mughayyer described the Israeli settlers who rampaged through their community on April 12 as more numerous and heavily armed than in previous raids.
The aftermath of the attack, which lasted several hours, is evident in the torched homes and cars that still bear testament to the violence.
Residents criticized Israeli soldiers for allegedly doing nothing to stop the attack. With limited means to defend themselves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they fear future assaults on their village.
“We have stones and they have weapons, and the army supports the settlers,” said Abdullatif Abu Alia, whose house came under attack. His roof was spattered with the blood of Palestinians wounded as they tried to repel the attackers with rocks. One of them, his relative Jihad Abu Alia, was shot and killed, he said.
“Of course, the aim is to force displacement,” he added.
Al-Mughayyer was one of several Palestinian villages raided by settlers over several days beginning April 12, an escalation that began after a 14-year-old Israeli went missing. His body was discovered not far from al-Mughayyer the following day.
Violence in the West Bank, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, was already surging before the latest Gaza conflict began in October – fueling further bloodshed in the territory.
Settler violence is a source of growing concern among Israel’s Western allies. A number of countries, including the U.S., have imposed sanctions on violent settlers and urged Israel to do more to stop the violence.
Washington imposed sanctions on Friday on an ally of Israel’s far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence.
Asked about residents’ accusations that soldiers had done nothing to stop the alMughayyer attack, the military said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and security forces operated to protect “the property and lives of all citizens and disperse the confrontations.”
GUNSHOT WOUNDS
Ameen Abu Alia, the head of al-Mughayyer’s municipal council, said 45 Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds in the attack, which began after hundreds of settlers had congregated on a road near the village.
Israeli troops arrived shortly before it started, setting up roadblocks and a cordon that left houses on the village outskirts cut off from its center, meaning villagers could not go to aid those who were under attack, he said.
The soldiers also prevented ambulances from reaching the area to treat wounded people, he said.
The Israeli military said ambulances “were delayed for a security check and then they were given the authorization to continue.”
Abu Alia, the municipal council head, accused the Israeli army of providing security for the settler raid, which the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said had been “accompanied by Israeli forces.”
Complaints about soldiers’ behavior that was not in accordance with orders will be examined, the Israeli military said.
Israel has settled the West Bank extensively since 1967, viewing it as the biblical Judea and Samaria and critical to Israel’s security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promotion of settlement growth has drawn U.S. criticism.
The settlements have eaten up West Bank land, where Palestinians have long aimed to establish an independent state that would also include the Gaza Strip and have East Jerusalem as its capital.
FIRE TRUCK TORCHED, SHEEP STOLEN
Shehadah Abu Rasheed, whose home was torched in the attack, pitched a tent to provide temporary shelter.
Inside, the walls of the house were charred black. Abu Rasheed said a settler hit his wife, and one of his four children was lightly wounded by gunfire.
The settlers also torched a fire truck sent to al-Mughayyer by the Palestinian Civil Defense service during the attack, the civil defense said.
Its charred remains were being loaded onto a truck when Reuters journalists visited on Wednesday.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that the settlers fully burned 21 houses in al-Mughayyer, displacing 86 Palestinians, that 32 vehicles were damaged, and some 220 sheep were killed or stolen.
It was unconfirmed if the Palestinian man who died during the raid was killed by Israeli forces or settlers, it said.
Four of 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, OCHA reported.
Another Palestinian man was killed in a settler raid on April 20, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
The U.S., U.K. and the European Union have all imposed sanctions on violent settlers in recent months.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at an April 15 briefing that Washington condemned last weekend’s violence against Palestinians just as strongly as it condemned the death of the 14-year-old Israeli.
The U.S. has said it is “incredibly concerned” that Israeli security forces were not doing enough to stop settler violence.
Al-Mughayyer is located in a part of the West Bank where Israel has full security control under interim peace accords, which Palestinian leaders signed three decades ago in the belief they would eventually lead to an independent state.
The arrangements mean most of the West Bank is off limits to the security forces of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Abdullatif Abu Alia, the al-Mughayyer resident, said the most he hoped for from the Palestinian government was help to erect a protective fence around his house and to strengthen the windows.
“What else can they do? They can’t even protect themselves,” he said, referring to Israeli raids into Palestinian cities.