More than 100 Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank early Tuesday, drawing condemnation from the US and from the Israeli government after they injured three members of the security forces.
The raid, and attacks on other West Bank villages on Tuesday, came amid mounting international criticism of settler violence, which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu downplayed last week.
Settlers stormed the village of Jalud in the northern West Bank as the military attempted to accompany a Palestinian family back to their home after they had been displaced by settler attacks two months earlier.
The Israeli military said "more than 100 Israeli rioters" were in the area overnight and soldiers and border police tried to disperse them.
"As a result of the clashes, three Israel Border Police officers were lightly injured," it said in a statement.
One person was arrested and two minors were taken in for questioning, police said.
The military said the settlers had blocked roads, set tires on fire and thrown rocks at security forces, also setting fire to Palestinian buildings and vehicles in the village.
It added that the attack had prevented the return of the family, who had been displaced "following several incidents of (Israeli) nationalist crime against them".
- 'No justification' -
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and has been accelerating settlement expansion there. Some 500,000 Israeli settlers live among three million Palestinians.
Netanyahu condemned the attack, which he blamed on "a small group of rioters".
Their actions "cause great harm to that community and interfere with our forces as they carry out their mission", he said.
President Isaac Herzog, who holds a largely ceremonial role, called the attack "a moral stain, an assault on the rule of law and our most fundamental values". Such criticism from Israeli official is rare for attacks in which the victims are Palestinian.
The US State Department told AFP that "we condemn criminal violence by any party in the West Bank and support appropriate investigations, legal accountability, and judicial processes for those responsible".
Settler attacks against Palestinians including beatings, vandalism and arson averaged six a day in the first half of the year, according to the United Nations.
Recent weeks have also seen high-profile attacks against Israelis in the West Bank, including the shooting dead of a settler by a Palestinian.
Israel has voiced outrage and imposed diplomatic repercussions on several Western countries that imposed sanctions against products from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law.
- Rising settler ambitions -
Mahmoud al-Toubasi, a member of the family seeking to return to Jalud, told AFP that he and his relatives had left the house more than two months ago, and that it had been occupied by settlers until the attack on Tuesday.
"My wife, my son and I went to the house in the car, accompanied by an army vehicle in front of us and another behind us," he said.
Settlers attacked the group upon their arrival at the house and were pushed back by soldiers with pepper spray, he added.
"We were not physically injured, but we suffered some choking from the pepper spray," Toubasi said.
In a separate attack on Tuesday, dozens of settlers from hilltop outposts raided the Palestinian village of Al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, residents told AFP.
An AFP journalist saw at least five burnt-out cars as a result.
In a separate incident in the town of Beitunia near Ramallah, dozens of settlers came to hold a prayer for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot using loudspeakers, Mayor Ribhi Dawla told AFP.
"This gathering is a dangerous precedent," he said. "There are ambitions for settlements in the area, they placed a caravan in the western part of the town and installed an iron gate."
In another incident on Tuesday evening, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its crews were "treating three people who were assaulted and beaten by settlers in the Jamala area near Ramallah" and taking them to hospital.
Violence has increased in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, with Israeli soldiers or settlers killing at least 1,111 Palestinians in that period, including both gunmen and civilians, per an AFP tally based on data from the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli figures show at least 49 Israelis, including civilians and security personnel, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations during the same period.
