Russia claims to have shot down Ukrainian drones in the south of its territory

AFP

Israeli settlers set fire to a Palestinian village in retaliatory acts

The inhabitants of the Palestinian town of Huwara, in the West Bank, woke up on Monday horrified to discover houses burned and cars charred by an attack by Israeli settlers in retaliation for the death of two of them. In an unusual event, the Israeli authorities called the calm the colonists. The army reported a new attack that occurred late in the day near Jericho, also in the West Bank, which killed a 27-year-old Israeli-American motorist. The new acts of violence come amid escalating tensions, despite the fact that officials from both sides pledged on Sunday to “avoid further acts of violence” during a meeting in Jordan. On Sunday night, dozens of Israeli settlers entered Huwara, a town in the north of the occupied West Bank. The attackers threw stones at houses and set fire to buildings and dozens of vehicles, an AFP journalist confirmed. More than 350 Palestinians were injured. Most of them suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. “They burned everything in their path,” a resident of the village, Kamal Odeh, told AFP. According to Wajeh Odeh, of the city ​​hall, more than 100 cars were burned and 30 houses were also burned or damaged. “We consider these acts as acts of terrorism,” an Israeli army official told reporters, saying that between 300 and 400 settlers entered the town Palestinian in the spirit of “revenge.” Eight Israelis were detained, most of them later released, police said. when they were driving near Huwara. The Israeli government called the incident a “Palestinian terrorist act.” The same afternoon, a Palestinian was shot dead as Israeli forces and settlers entered Zaatara, another town near Nablus in the northern West Bank. “We want security, but the The responsibility for guaranteeing it rests solely with the army,” Esty Yaniv, the mother of the two dead settlers, told reporters on Monday. Hundreds of people attended their funerals in Jerusalem. Their coffins, carried by relatives and soldiers, were covered with Israeli flags, according to an AFP journalist. “I ask you not to do justice on your own, and to let the security forces fulfill their mission,” declared the first Israeli minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a video released by his office. Along the same lines, his Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, stated during a visit to Huwara that “this situation cannot be tolerated, in which citizens do justice for his account”. Netanyahu has led since December one of the most right-wing governments in the history of the State of Israel, and has in his cabinet several ministers who are settlers in the West Bank. France called “violence against Palestinian civilians” “unacceptable”. The German government said it was “urgent” to work to “prevent the already very tense situation from escalating further.” US State Department spokesman Ned Price also condemned the latest killings, saying the The Israeli who died in Jericho on Monday also had US nationality.- “Pogrom” -Israeli organizations for the defense of human rights denounced a “pogrom”, “supported” by the Israeli government, as the NGO “Peace Now” said The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, called for combating “terrorism of the settlers.” And the Palestinian president, Mahmud Abbas, accused Israel of “supporting terrorist acts perpetrated by settlers” in this area of ​​the West Bank , a Palestinian territory occupied by the Hebrew State since 1967. For almost a year, the Israeli army has multiplied its operations in the northern West Bank, presented as “anti-terrorism.” On Wednesday, eleven Palestinians died in N in the bloodiest Israeli military incursion into the West Bank since at least 2005. Since the start of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 63 Palestinians (including civilians and members of armed groups), as well as eleven civilians and one police officer Israelis, and a Ukrainian woman, according to an AFP count based on official sources.bur-cgo/avl-sag/jvb