Published: 3 March 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
Israel army chief promises thorough investigation; Smotrich says Hawara should be ‘wiped out’; MK investigated for inciting terrorism.
The IDF’s Commander-in-Chief Herzi Halevi has vowed to “thoroughly investigate” the settler rampage in Huwara last Sunday night.
One Palestinian was killed and four seriously injured when about 400 of settlers rampaged through the West Bank village in the attack, torching homes and cars.
The attacks came in a wave of fury over the killing of brothers Hallel Yaniv, 21, and Yagel Yaniv, 19, who were murdered by a Palestinian gunman.
Major General Yehuda Fuchs, who oversees the West Bank, described the rampage as a “pogrom” that caught the military off-guard.
“What happened in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by law-breakers,” Fuchs said in a television interview. “We were not ready for a pogrom on the scale of dozens of people with flammable material and the means to set it on fire, heading to 20 or more places — as well as confronting soldiers and commanders and police at the junction — and setting random Palestinian homes and cars on fire.”
Fuchs also said he was worried clashes between soldiers and settlers would eventually lead to Israelis being killed. He accused the Jewish extremists of “spreading terror.”
Settler violence towards Palestinians has doubled under Israel’s new government and clashes between soldiers and settlers are also increasing. In one incident this week settlers tried to ram their car into soldiers in Huwara.
Eight suspects were arrested on the night of the attacks. Three were placed under house arrest and the rest have been released. An additional eight suspects were arrested on Wednesday.
