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Israeli Settlers Rampage at Base 06/30 06:03
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) -- Dozens of Israeli settlers rampaged around a
military base in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, setting fires, vandalizing
military vehicles, spraying graffiti and attacking soldiers, the military said.
Sunday night's unrest came after several attacks in the West Bank carried
out by Jewish settlers and anger at their arrests by security forces attempting
to contain the violence over the past few days.
More than 100 settlers on Wednesday evening entered the West Bank town of
Kfar Malik, setting property ablaze and opening fire on Palestinians who tried
to stop them, Najeb Rostom, head of the local council, said. Three Palestinians
were killed after the military intervened. Israeli security forces arrested
five settlers.
"No civilized country can tolerate violent and anarchic acts of burning a
military facility, damaging IDF property and attacking security personnel by
citizens of the country," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
Footage on Israeli media showed dozens of young, religious men typically
associated with "hilltop youth," an extremist movement of Israeli settlers who
occupy West Bank hilltops and have been accused of attacking Palestinians and
their property.
The footage showed security forces using stun grenades as dozens of settlers
gathered around the military base just north of Ramallah. The Israeli military
released photos of the infrastructure burned in the attack, which it said
included "systems that help thwart terrorist attacks and maintain security."
Far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has often defended Israelis
accused of similar crimes, offered a rare condemnation of Sunday's violence.
"Attacking security forces, security facilities, and IDF soldiers who are our
brothers, our protectors, is a red line, and must be dealt with in full
severity. We are brothers," he wrote on X.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid told Israel's Army radio that the riots were
carried out by "Jewish terrorists, gangs of criminals, who feel backed by the
(governing) coalition."
A hard-line supporter of Jewish settlements, Ben-Gvir was previously
convicted in Israel of racist incitement and support for terrorist groups, and
has called for the deportation of all Arab citizens from Israel. Though once
widely shunned by Israel's politicians, Ben-Gvir's influence has grown and
alongside a shift to the right in the country's electorate has further
emboldened violence from extremist settlers in the West Bank.
Defense Minister Israel Katz vowed Monday to "eradicate this violence from
the root," and implored the extremist settlers to remember that many of the
security forces are exhausted reservists serving multiple rounds of duty.
Over the past two years of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, Palestinian
residents in the West Bank have reported a major increase in Israeli
checkpoints and delays across the territory. Israel, meanwhile, says threats
from the West Bank against its citizens are on the rise.
Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in the 1967 Mideast
war, and Palestinians want all three territories for their future state. The
West Bank is home to some 3 million Palestinians live under seemingly
open-ended Israeli military rule, and 500,000 Jewish settlers. The
international community overwhelmingly considers settlements illegal.
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