A Palestinian man has been killed and several people were injured after dozens of Israeli settlers went on a rampage and attacked a village in the occupied West Bank, drawing widespread condemnation.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said on Friday that 23-year-old Mahmoud Abdel Qader Sadda was shot and another Palestinian suffered critical gunshot wounds to the chest in the attack on the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya.
Dozens of masked Israeli settlers, some armed, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails as they stormed the village, setting fire to several cars and destroying property. They also attacked the town of Huwara.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank has spiked since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October.
Between October 7 and August 12 this year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded some 1,250 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in at least 120 deaths, and 1,000 incidents of property damage.
The Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, called the latest attacks “pure settler terrorism – supported by the state, sponsored by our government”.
The Mistaclim organisation, which is made up of Israelis opposed to the occupation of Palestinian territory, said that “contrary to the publication in the news, this is not a nationalist event but a terrorist attack”.
SOURCE: Al jazeerah
