Israel-Hamas conflict: Deadly settler attack was “not an isolated incident” | World news

Last night, a Palestinian was killed and several others injured by a group of Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Jit.

Residents reported that about 100 masked settlers entered the village, fired live ammunition and set fire to houses and cars.

Videos of the attack confirmed by Sky News show groups of masked people attacking properties in southern Jit.

A surveillance camera video with the time stamp 7:49 p.m. shows three dark-clad settlers smashing the windows of a car parked in front of a house, then setting it on fire and running away.

Afterwards, several settlers returned, some throwing objects and carrying a chair.

A later video, taken from the same location, shows at least eight Israeli settlers climbing a hill less than a kilometer from the house. Local residents watch from balconies as the car continues to burn.

But the chaos was not limited to the outside world – some of the attackers were also able to enter Palestinian homes. One video shows two settlers pouring liquid over a sofa in a house.

Seconds later, one of them sets fire to the sofa.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the attack and said he was treating it with “utmost severity.” An Israel Defense Forces spokesman told Sky News they had detained an Israeli for questioning about the incident.

There are several conflicting accounts about when the incident began and how long it took for Israeli forces to arrive. The attacks occurred just 2 km from an Israeli military base in the nearby settlement of Kdumim.

According to the Israeli military, the attack began around 8 p.m. and its forces entered the village “within minutes” of learning of the attack.

Sky News spoke to the owner of the burning car, Dr. Ibrahim Sedi.

Ibrahim, 55, also says the attack began at 8 p.m., but soldiers did not arrive until an hour later. When they arrived, the situation was quickly resolved, he says.

“They pushed the settlers away and even shot into the air to scare them. They helped us – they tried to put out the fire in the two cars.”

“The soldiers are different people, they are friendly, they tried to help us.”

However, local resident Sufian Jit says the attack began at 6 p.m. – and that residents were without military assistance for two hours.

“What can I say? It was as if a war had started against us. There were more than 100 settlers.”

Images of the aftermath of the attack show the charred remains of a living room in a Palestinian home.

Dr. Ibrahim Sedi identified the man killed as a 23-year-old relative who was outside the family home defending it against the attackers.

“There were about 18 people in the house. My family, eight of us, and ten of my relatives were with me. I cooked a meal for them.

“People close to him told us that one of the settlers had shot at him from only 15 meters away. [the settlers] hid ourselves among the trees.”

An Israel Defense Forces spokesman said the military had launched an investigation into the incident.

“The Israel Defense Forces condemn incidents of this kind and the rioters who endanger security, public order and distract the Israel Defense Forces and security forces from their primary mission, which is to combat terrorism and protect the safety of civilians,” the spokesman said.

“Not an isolated case”

According to the conflict monitoring organization ACLED, at least 27 settler attacks have been reported in Jit since 2018.

UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the incident was “not an isolated attack.”

“This was a direct consequence of Israel’s settlement policy and the prevailing climate of impunity,” she said.

Tensions in the West Bank have increased since October 7 last year, when 1,200 Israelis were killed in a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.

According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 40,000 Palestinians were killed in Israel's subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip.

This year is expected to be the deadliest on record for Palestinians in the West Bank. As of August 11, 268 Palestinians have been killed, compared to 173 at the same time last year.

However, violence against Palestinians is increasingly coming not only from Israeli soldiers but also from civilian settlers.

Since the war began, the UN has recorded around 12,500 attacks by extremist Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank or their property.

That's an average of four attacks per day – compared to three per day before the war began. More than seven Palestinians are injured or killed in these attacks every week.

Since October 7, around 1,500 Palestinians – half of them children – have been displaced by a combination of access restrictions and increasing settler violence, according to the UN.

On Friday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that 100 Palestinians had fled their homes in the West Bank community of Umm Jamal because they were threatened and harassed by nearby settlers.

“This must stop and the key is to hold the perpetrators accountable,” said Ms Shamdasani.

“There were very few investigations and even those did not result in justice for the victims and their families. There was clearly a state responsibility in this regard.”

The Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has tracked 1,535 complaints related to settler violence since 2005. Of these, only 12 resulted in a full conviction.

About 500,000 Israeli citizens live in the West Bank, and another 220,000 in East Jerusalem.

Israel has long claimed historical rights to parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, saying there have been Jewish settlements in the area for centuries.

However, under international law, these areas are considered occupied Palestinian land and the construction of settlements is prohibited – a position reiterated by the UK, EU and US governments. Nevertheless, they have continued to expand.

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Hagit Ofran, co-director of Settlement Watch, a project of the Israeli non-governmental organization Peace Now, says settlement construction has increased “dramatically” since October 7.

“We are already seeing 30 new settlements. And many Palestinian communities are being displaced or fleeing the violence of the settlers.”

Following its victory in the December 2022 elections, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government has made the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank a top priority.

The guiding principle of the coalition agreement was the commitment to “promote and expand settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel,” including “Judea and Samaria” – the biblical name for the West Bank.

In 1987, there were just 60,000 Israeli settlers living in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem). By 2005, that number had quadrupled to 247,300, and by 2021, the number was 465,400.

Further expansion is planned. Last year, Israel pushed ahead with plans to create a record 12,349 new settlement homes.

This year, Israel declared a record 2,419 hectares of land in the West Bank as “state land” – a designation that allows the construction of settlements. That's more than anything declared state land in the previous two decades.

“This is how the Israeli government is taking over land in the West Bank,” says Hagit Ofran of Settlement Watch.

“On the one hand, they want to prevent the Palestinians from using land, and on the other hand, they want to enable the construction of settlements. So they have to take the land. And the legal acrobatics that Israel is doing to take land is this declaration of state land.”

At the same time, Israeli authorities are demolishing Palestinian buildings at the highest rate in recent history. UN data shows that 963 buildings have been demolished this year, leaving 2,001 people (including 876 children) homeless. This figure had risen to 644 buildings by this time last year.

Several government ministers are themselves settlers, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

In a statement about a deadly settler attack in August, Ben Gvir said of the suspected killer: “My policy is clear. Anyone who defends themselves against stone throwing should receive a medal of honor.”

The other attacker in that case was later sanctioned by Britain for his role in inciting settler violence. More than a dozen Israeli settlers have been sanctioned by countries including the US and Britain in recent months.

The attack in Jit last night sparked unusually strong condemnation from far-right figures within the Israeli government.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who had previously defended violent settlers and railed against US sanctions, described the attacks as “anarchist criminal violence”.

“I think it has to do with the international sanctions and the ICJ case,” says Ofran. “Maybe now they're trying to pretend they're doing something. But I don't see it being a big, dramatic change in policy.”

For the Palestinians, such words are likely to be little consolation as violence continues to escalate.

“We have never done anything to the settlers or soldiers – the people in my village are friendly people,” says Dr. Ibrahim Sedi, whose cars were burned in the attack on Jit on Thursday.

“Before, the settlers came, but they drove people off their land – that's all. This time they were very scary.”

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