A West Bank village feels helpless after Israeli settlers attack with fire and bullets
DUMA, West Bank—charred homes and cars dotting this hilltop village surrounded by olive groves are a searing reminder of Palestinians’ vulnerability to rising violence from Israeli settlers. The trail of wreckage along Duma’s main road is the aftermath of a three-hour attack in mid-april that left 15 homes damaged by arson and six residents injured by bullets, the head of its village council said. It was one of nearly 800 settler attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since Hamas attacked Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, according to the UN.
The burnt remains in Duma also highlight the village’s limited resources to clean up and rebuild, let alone defend itself from future incursions, which seem inevitable as gun-toting settlers patrol the area roughly 20 miles north of Jerusalem.
“We as the village of Duma...do not have the power to defend ourselves,” said Suleiman Dawabsha, chairman of the village council for this community of more than 2,000 people. He estimated the attack caused five million shekels ($1.3 million) in damage.
The rampage on April 13 echoed a similar event that took place almost a decade ago. In 2015, three Palestinians from Duma were killed, including an 18 month-old baby, after settlers firebombed a home there. An Israeli man was later convicted for murder.
The latest attack against Duma was part of a wave of settler violence touched off by the death of a 14-year-old Israeli who went missing on the morning of April 12. Authorities found his body the next day and they have arrested a man from Duma who they say was connected to the boy’s alleged murder.
On April 15, two days after the attack in Duma, two Palestinians were shot dead by settlers near the town of Aqraba, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. And in a related spurt of violence, a man was killed by Israeli fire on April 12 in nearby al-mughayyir, though it remains unclear whether the fatal bullet was fired by a soldier or settler.
There have been 794 settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7—from stones thrown at passing cars to bullets fired at residents, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. At least 10 Palestinians have been killed by settlers in these attacks, it said.
Attacks by settlers aren’t the only form of violence on the rise in the West Bank.
Since the war in Gaza began, nearly 500 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory, according to the health ministry based in Ramallah, which says the overwhelming majorities have been shot dead by soldiers. Palestinians in the West Bank have killed nine Israelis, including five soldiers, since October 7, according to UN data.
The war has undoubtedly heightened tensions between settlers and Palestinians. But Israeli human rights groups blame the far-right government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for fueling settler violence by promoting an ideology of total Israeli supremacy in the West Bank.