After Hawara, Israel settlers stage 'organised pogroms'

PLO secretary general says no coordination with Israel on West Bank security

The Palestinian leadership's second in command has dismissed reports that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had agreed to resume security coordination in the occupied West Bank following Sunday's controversial meeting in Jordan.

The meeting, at the Red Sea port city of Aqaba, came amid one of the worst spells of Israeli violence in the West Bank in recent memory.

A joint statement from the Israeli and Palestinian delegations in Aqaba said there had been an agreement from both sides to "end unilateral measures".

Almost immediately after the meeting, senior Israeli ministers said West Bank settlement expansion and approvals would continue, despite the pledge.

Hussein Al-Sheikh, secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and frequently tipped as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's successor, told The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister site that no definite outcomes emerged from the meeting.

"We did not reach any final understanding or agreements," Al-Sheikh told Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

Palestinian political experts say tensions will not be de-escalated in the West Bank

Palestinian political experts say Palestinian-Israeli tensions will not be de-escalated in the occupied West Bank at least during 2023.

“Israel interests its own power in the area by the endless US support, which protect it from any international or Arab condemnation or rejection,” experts told The New Arab.

What made the matter worse, according to the experts, was normalizing the political ties between Israel and some Arab countries, which means that “the Palestinians found themselves alone in their conflict with Israel.”

Over twelve months, the Israeli occupation has been escalating its crimes against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

Israel legal experts urge investigation into Smotrich, MKs comments for 'inducing war crimes'

Twenty-two Israeli experts on international law have urged Israel’s attorney general to investigate lawmakers, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for "inducing war crimes" against Palestine.

Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara has been asked to open an investigation into the Israeli settler rampage in Hawara in the West Bank, where hundreds of settlers killed one Palestinian and set dozens of homes and cars on fire. 

The violence followed the killings of two Israeli brothers from a nearby settlement, which came after Israel's "massacre" in Nablus when 11 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces.

The legal scholars argued that the words of Smotrich and far-right lawmakers Zvika Fogel and Limor Son Har-Melech may have violated international law by "inducing others to commit war crimes".

Israeli killed in West Bank violence was US citizen: State Department

An Israeli who was killed in violence in the West Bank city of Jericho on Monday was also a US citizen, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

The Israeli government identified the slain man as Elan Ganeles, 27, of West Hartford, Conn.

"We condemn the horrific killing of two Israeli brothers near Nablus and the killing today of an Israeli near Jericho, who we understand was also an American citizen," Price told reporters.

Price did not identify the victim. But in a tweet US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides identified the person as male.

"I can confirm that a US citizen was killed in one of the terror attacks in the West Bank tonight. I pray for his family," Nides wrote.

Price called on Israel to take action against the settlers behind the violence as well as those suspected in the deaths of the Israelis.

He said one Palestinian man was killed and 300 injured in the attack by Israeli settlers, which left dozens of homes and cars torched.

"We also condemn the wide-scale indiscriminate violence by settlers against Palestinian civilians following the killings," he said.

"These actions are completely unacceptable," Price said.

An member of the governing Israeli coalition calls for Hawara to be 'burned and closed'

A senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's governing coalition called for Hawara to be "burned and closed", whilst approving of a settler rampage in the same occupied West Bank village on Sunday.

"Yesterday a terrorist came from Huwara – Hawara is closed and burnt. That is what I want to see. Only thus can we obtain deterrence," said Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party in an interview with Radio Galey Israel.

"The act that the residents of Judea and Samaria (referring to the illegal settlers living in the occupied West Bank) carried out yesterday is the strongest deterrent that the State of Israel has had since Operation Defensive Shield. After a murder like yesterday, villages should burn when the IDF [Israeli military] does not act."

Operation Defensive Shield was the Israeli assault in the occupied West Bank during the Second Intifada in 2002 when nearly 500 Palestinians were killed.

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Netanyahu coalition member praises Hawara settler pogrom

A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing coalition said on Monday that he approved the Israeli settler rampage against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

Zvika Foget, a member of the far-right Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party, said in an interview with Israeli army radio that he "looks favourably upon" the results of violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, who, flanked by members of the Israeli army, killed one Palestinian and set dozens of homes on fire in the Palestinian town of Hawara on Sunday.

Foget said the violence - which was described as a 'pogrom' - acted as a 'deterrent'. 

"The effect of deterrence that was achieved yesterday following these so-called 'pogroms' hadn't been achieved in the West Bank since Operation Defensive Shield," he said, referring to the Israeli army’s actions during the Second Intifada in 2002 when they invaded several Palestinian towns and cities in the West Bank and killed nearly 500 Palestinians. 

Palestinians describe being 'defenceless' after settler attacks

Palestinians in the West Bank have described being "defenceless" after Israeli settlers broke into homes in the town of Hawara on Sunday.

At least 30 houses were completely or partially burned and about 25 cars were torched as the settlers stormed the town, according to Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"Some 70 settlers arrived at my house in Huwara and began to throw rocks at us, so I ran with my family inside the house and went up to the rooftop for protection," Mohammad Odeh, a resident of Huwara, told TNA.

"The settlers began to set fire to the property, including my car junkyard business, while my 11-year-old son and I tried to push them off by throwing objects from the rooftop," said Odeh.

"The settlers, some of whom carried firearms, tried to break into the house and to set fire to the first floor, while they kept threatening us," described Odeh.

"My three children, the youngest being my 4-month-old daughter, my wife, and I were trapped inside, completely defenceless."

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians in West Bank for third day

Israeli settlers' attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have continued for the third day, Palestinian sources told The New Arab.

On Tuesday morning, Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf, south of Nablus, damaging several Palestinian cars and destroying at least 50 olive trees, a local source told The New Arab.

Attacks by Israeli settlers have been increasing since the beginning of last year, especially in the Nablus region. Palestinian human rights groups have accused the Israeli government of empowering settlers' violence.