'Atmosphere of terror': Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian villages, including Hawara

Hundreds of Israeli settlers laid siege to the Palestinian town of Turmusaya on Wednesday, following a rampage through West Bank villages a night after four settlers were shot dead. 

The Israeli settlers, many of whom were armed, torched at least 60 cars and 30 houses, in Turmusaya, according to media reports. Witnesses say they were accompanied by Israeli soldiers.

It marks the second concurrent day of settler attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank.

On Tuesday night, 37 Palestinians were injured in "revenge attacks" by Israeli settlers in the wake of the killing of four settlers in the occupied West Bank earlier that day.#

Some of the villagers were injured by live or rubber-coated bullets, while others were hit with stones and attacked with tear gas, according to Palestinian official Ghassan Douglas.

At least 147 vehicles, including an ambulance, have been destroyed so far by the rampaging settlers, while 23 houses and 16 shops have been damaged. Crops belonging to Palestinian farmers were also set ablaze.

The settler attacks extended along the line of villages connecting Ramallah and Nablus around 50km north of Jerusalem, Douglas confirmed to The New Arab’s Arabic-language sister publication Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.  

#Watch a #video of the attack by #Jewish settlers from the hilltop gangs on #Palestinian homes in #Turmusaya in the #WestBank and burning them. pic.twitter.com/tRWnKz8ASP

— سعيد بشارات Saaed Bsharat (@saaed_bsharat) June 21, 2023

It is believed that ten Palestinian villages neighbouring the illegal settlements came under assault, including Beitin, Deir Sharaf, , Za’tara, Hawara, Libban and Turmusaya, the site of today's attack.

Wajed Nubani, a 34-year-old farmer and resident of the West Bank village of Libban, just south of Nablus, told The New Arab that between 70 and 100 settlers attacked the village at around 7.30pm. Marauding settlers set fire to cars and businesses, as well as destroying olive trees and throwing stones at houses, he said.

"The Israeli army accompanied the settlers and shot live bullets each time someone got close to the settlers," Nubani said, referring to the attempts by Palestinians to fend the settlers off. 

The settlers also tried to attack Palestinian women and children, with many being forced to escaped to surrounding hills.

"Libban has experienced attacks by settlers before, but never in such large scale … there was an atmosphere of terror and it’s still not over," Nubani said. 

The attacks lasted throughout the night and into the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

The violence is reminiscent of Israeli settler attacks around the village of Hawara in February, which was also triggered by the killing of settlers. At the time of that spate of settler violence, Yehuda Fuchs, the top Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) general in the West Bank, characterised the settlers' actions as a "pogrom".

In the aftermath of the killing of the four settlers near the illegal settlement of Eli, Israeli authorities have sent mixed messages to the public.

Speaking immediately after the shooting, IDF Chief Spokesperson Daniel Hagari strongly urged Israelis not to take the law into their own hands.

However, speaking from the scene of the killing, Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called on settlers to arm themselves, according to Israeli media. 

In an even more incendiary response the Eli shooting, Tally Gotliv, a member of the Knesset for the governing Likud Party, called for "collective punishment" against Palestinians.

As settlers were attacking Palestinian villages, Gotliv wrote on twitter: "Killing terrorists is not enough… wherever a terrorist comes from, the whole place needs to pay … collective punishment."

These words echo the sentiments of Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich during the Hawara attacks, when he called for that "erasure" of the town. 

The Eli shooting and subsequent settler attacks itself comes amid deepening violence in the West Bank, with the Israel security forces launching several deadly raids into Palestinian areas, including most recently in Jenin on Monday, where at least 7 Palestinians, including a 15-year-old girl, were killed.

Additional reporting by Qassem Muaddi