Escalating West Bank violence shows no signs of slowing
Israeli troops kill alleged militants near refugee site
JERUSALEM — Israeli troops on Sunday killed three alleged Palestinian militants in the northern West Bank, further escalating a wave of violence in which two other people, including a young Palestinian man believed to have been gunned down by extremist Jewish settlers, were killed in fighting over the weekend.
The Israeli army said it shot the three men near the Jenin refugee camp — the site of a largescale military operation last month. It said the three men had just exited the camp and were on their way to carry out an attack and that an M-16 rifle was recovered from their vehicle.
The Hamas and Islamic Jihad militant groups condemned the killings, though it was not immediately known whether the three men belonged to either organization. Israel identified the leader of the group as Naif Abu Tsuik, 26, saying he was a “leading military operative” from the camp.
The Jenin camp is known as a militant stronghold. Last month, the army carried out a two-day offensive in the camp, killing 12 Palestinians, including at least eight militants, and causing widespread damage to the densely populated area. An Israeli soldier also was killed.
But the offensive appears to have done little to halt a broader wave of violence that began in early 2022 and has gained momentum since Israel's hard-line government took office in December. The government is dominated by ultranationalist West Bank settler leaders and other allies with close ties to the settler movement. A growing number of Israeli voices have said their presence in the government has worsened the tense atmosphere by emboldening young militant settlers to attack Palestinians.
The Israeli news site Ynet reported Sunday that Ronen Bar, head of the Shin Bet internal security agency, recently warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that settler violence was becoming a strategic threat and raising the likelihood of Palestinian attacks in retaliation. The report drew angry condemnations from leading members of the government.
The report said that Bar issued his warning before a Friday night incident in which armed settlers stormed into a Palestinian village and killed a 19-yearold man. On Saturday, a Palestinian gunman shot and killed an Israeli security guard in central Tel Aviv before another guard shot and killed the attacker.
Two Israeli settlers have been arrested in the Friday night shooting of 19-year-old Qusai Matan in the village of Burqa.
The army said the Israeli settlers arrived in the area to herd sheep, leading to clashes between Israelis and Palestinians from the village. Israeli media reported that one of the suspects in the incident, Elisha Yered, was a former aide to an ultranationalist lawmaker in the “Jewish Power” party, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s key coalition partners.
The shooting is part of an escalation of settler attacks on Palestinian civilians in recent months, and several Israeli commentators warned Sunday that assailants felt emboldened by fellow ultranationalists in key positions in government.
In the right-leaning Hebrew-language daily Israel Hayom, pundit Yoav Limor wrote that there are “armed Jewish militias that are operating like terrorist groups in Samaria,” referring to the West Bank by its biblical name. “If the state of Israel doesn’t come to its senses and stop them immediately, the damage they will do is far more dangerous than any terror attack of the enemy,” he said.
Leading politicians lashed out at the criticism. “The Israeli media (again) got confused: a Jew who defends himself and others against the murder of Palestinians, is not a murder suspect, but a hero who will receive my full support,” tweeted National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
The surge in fighting is one of the worst between Israelis and Palestinians in nearly two decades. More than 160 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire this year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a tally. At least 26 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis so far this year.