Investigation reveals Israeli forces stood by as settlers raided, torched Palestinian village

A senior defence official said Israeli soldiers did not do anything to stop a settler attack on Jit, which resulted in the killing of a Palestinian man.

The New Arab Staff

17 August, 2024

https://www.newarab.com/news/israeli-forces-stood-settlers-raided-west-bank-village

Israeli army reservists stood by as dozens of armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attacked Palestinian residents and torched their homes and cars, a preliminary investigation by Israel has revealed.

The attack resulted in the killing of a 23-year-old Palestinian man and dozens of others to be wounded, as the settlers opened fire in the village of Jit on Thursday.

The probe also showed that a "security squad" from the Havat Gilad illegal settlement outpost were present at the scene of the attack, but none of the settlers were arrested.

The soldiers "didn’t do anything to stop the pogrom…they just stood there next to them, saw everything and did nothing," a senior defence official said, adding that Israeli intelligence and the Israeli army did not know it was going to happen before the attack took place.

Most of the settlers came from the Shilo settlement and Havat Gilad outpost, with some of them masked.

The settlers threw Molotov cocktails at residents, in an attack that was condemned internationally, including by the White House.

The body of 23-year-old Rasheed Mahmoud Abed Al Khadier Sadah was transferred to Nablus to undergo an autopsy, which showed that a bullet had entered and exited his body.

Security sources reiterated the attack took place "right in front" of reserve Israeli soldiers and when the armed members of the Havat Gilad security squad arrived on the scene later, they opened fire.

Israeli border police also arrived at the scene, but focused mainly on dispersing settlers and did not make any arrests bar one person, who was detained for interfering with a police officer beyond the territory of the village, and was later released, the Israeli Haaretz news website reported.

A senior security official criticised the lack of response from the forces during the attack, saying “we will deal with the lawbreakers, but the troops were supposed to arrest people in real-time on Thursday."

Following the attack, Israel’s president Isaac Herzog called it a "pogrom", while prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office published a statement saying, "those responsible for any offence will be apprehended and tried".

The White House also condemned the attack, describing it as "unacceptable".

The UN office OCHA says since the start of the war on Gaza in October, there have been at least 107 settler attacks that have caused Palestinians fatalities and wounds, and 859 causing damage to Palestinian property.

At least 569 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7, mostly by Israeli forces.

According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (WSRC), Israeli forces and settlers have deliberately started 273 fires targeting Palestinian land and property since 7 October.