More Israeli-Palestinian strife
JERUSALEM — Scores of Israeli settlers went on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank late Sunday, setting dozens of cars and homes on fire after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman. Palestinian medics said one man was killed and four others were badly wounded in what appeared to be the strongest outburst of settler violence in decades.
The deadly shooting, followed by the late-night rampage, immediately raised doubts about Jordan’s declaration that Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to calm a yearlong wave of violence.
Palestinian media said about 30 homes and cars were torched. Photos and video on social media showed large fires burning throughout the town of Hawara — scene of the deadly shooting earlier in the day — and lighting up the sky.
In one video, crowds of settlers could be heard reciting the Jewish prayer for the dead as they stared at a building in f lames. And earlier, a prominent Israeli Cabinet minister and settler leader had called for Israel to strike “without mercy.”
Late Sunday, the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry said a 37-year-old man was shot and killed by Israeli fire. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said two other people were shot and wounded, a third person was stabbed and a fourth was beaten with an iron bar. About 95 others were being treated for tear gas inhalation.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned what he called “the terrorist acts carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces tonight.”
“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible,” he added.
As videos of the violence appeared on evening news shows, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appealed for calm and urged against vigilante violence. “I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don’t take the law into your hands,” Netanyahu said in a video statement.
The Israeli military said that its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzl Halevi, was rushing to the scene and that forces were trying to restore order. Israel’s Army Radio, citing an anonymous official, said that 15 houses and 25 cars had been torched, and that the army evacuated nine Palestinian families from their burning homes.
The rampage occurred shortly after the Jordanian government, which hosted Sunday’s talks at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, said the sides had agreed to take steps to de-escalate tensions and would meet again in March ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“They reaffirmed the necessity of committing to deescalation on the ground and to prevent further violence,” the Jordanian Foreign Ministry announced.
After nearly a year of fighting that has killed over 200 Palestinians and more than 40 Israelis in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Jordanian announcement marked a small sign of progress. But the situation on the ground immediately cast those commitments into doubt.
The Palestinians claim the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip — areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War — for a future state. About 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements illegal and as obstacles to peace.
The West Bank is home to a number of hard-line settlements whose residents frequently vandalize Palestinians’ land and property. But rarely is the violence so widespread.
Prominent members of Israel’s far-right government called for tough action against the Palestinians.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader who lives in the area and has been put in charge of much of Israel’s West Bank policy, called for “striking the cities of terror and its instigators without mercy, with tanks and helicopters.”
Using a phrase that calls for a more heavy-handed response, he said Israel should act “in a way that conveys that the master of the house has gone crazy.”
An Israeli ministerial committee gave initial approval to a bill that would impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted in deadly attacks. The measure was sent to lawmakers for further debate.
There were also differing interpretations of what exactly was agreed to in Aqaba between the Palestinians and Israelis.
Jordan’s Foreign Ministry said the representatives agreed to work toward a “just and lasting peace” and had committed to preserving the status quo at Jerusalem’s contested holy site.
Tensions at the site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as Haram al-Sharif have often spilled over into violence and two years ago sparked an 11-day war between Israel and the militant group Hamas during Ramadan.
Israel’s government, the most right-wing in the nation’s history, played down Sunday’s meeting.
A senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity under government guidelines, said only that the sides in Jordan agreed to set up a committee to work at renewing security ties with the Palestinians. The Palestinians cut off ties last month after a deadly Israeli military raid in the West Bank.
National security advisor Tzachi Hanegbi, who led the Israeli delegation, said that there were “no changes” in Israeli policies and that plans to build thousands of new settlement homes would not be affected.
He said “there is no settlement freeze” and “there is no restriction on army activity.”
The Jordanian announcement had said Israel pledged not to legalize any more outposts for six months or approve any new construction in existing settlements for four months.
The Palestinians, meanwhile, said they had presented a long list of grievances, including an end to Israeli settlement construction on occupied lands and a halt to Israeli military raids on Palestinian towns.
Sunday’s shooting in Hawara came days after an Israeli military raid killed 10 Palestinians in the nearby city of Nablus. The shooting occurred on a highway that serves both Palestinians and Israeli settlers. The two people killed were identified as brothers, ages 21 and 19, from the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha.
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security agency, attended at the talks in Jordan. The head of the Palestinian intelligence services as well as advisors to Abbas also joined.