Israel Court Charges 2 Settlers with ‘Terror’ for Attacking Palestinians

A damaged window of a store is seen after settlers set fire to vehicles, houses, and stores in Huwara. (EPA)
A damaged window of a store is seen after settlers set fire to vehicles, houses, and stores in Huwara. (EPA)
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Israel Court Charges 2 Settlers with ‘Terror’ for Attacking Palestinians

A damaged window of a store is seen after settlers set fire to vehicles, houses, and stores in Huwara. (EPA)
A damaged window of a store is seen after settlers set fire to vehicles, houses, and stores in Huwara. (EPA)

An Israeli court charged on Thursday two Jewish settlers with “committing an act of terror” for attacking Palestinians in a village in the occupied West Bank this month, officials said.

The rare indictment, normally reserved for Palestinians, came after a group of settlers attacked a Palestinian family in their car in Huwara, where eight days earlier, on February 26, two Israeli settlers had been shot dead amid a surge in violence in the Palestinian territory.

Since the beginning of this year, tensions have escalated between Palestinians and Israelis in the West Bank.

So far, 88 Palestinians have been killed, including a number of minors. On the other side, 13 Israelis and a Ukrainian woman were killed, according to a toll compiled by AFP, based on official Israeli and Palestinian sources.

The fatal February 26 shootings sparked a rampage by dozens of Israeli settlers who set homes and cars ablaze in Huwara, with Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich saying he thought the village should be “wiped out” in remarks he later retracted.

According to the indictment filed at Israel’s central district court, the two young men were among a group of eight to 10 settlers who on March 6, during the Jewish holiday Purim, drove to the parking lot of a supermarket in Huwara.

Upon seeing the settlers emerge from two vehicles armed with an axe, hammer, stones and pepper spray, shoppers rushed into the supermarket and closed its metal shutters to defend themselves.

However, the settlers attacked a Palestinian couple and their toddler daughter who remained in their car. They threw stones at the vehicle and used the axe to break its windows and attack the father.

The father suffered wounds to his shoulder and arm while the attackers doused the car with pepper spray and the other accused vandalized two other cars parked nearby.

The family eventually managed to drive away as the settlers hurled rocks at them, wounding the father in the head.

The pair were charged with “a severe act of terror” and “racially motivated” damage, which prosecutors alleged had “an ideological or nationalistic motive.”

According to Israel’s Shin Bet internal security service, the accused -- arrested on March 13 -- belong to “a violent group acting to harm Palestinians and undermine the actions of security forces in dealing with Palestinian terror.”

Such nationalistic crimes are “a danger” to Israel’s security, cause unrest and harm “the routine of West Bank residents,” Shin Bet said in a statement.



Lebanon’s President Reveals the Country’s Stance on Relations with Israel

 Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on during a meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on during a meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
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Lebanon’s President Reveals the Country’s Stance on Relations with Israel

 Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on during a meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun looks on during a meeting with Cyprus' President Nikos Christodoulides at the Presidential Palace in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Wednesday, July 9, 2025. (AP)

Lebanon has no plans to have normal relations with Israel at the present time, and Beirut’s main aim is to reach a “state of no war” with its southern neighbor, the country’s president said Friday.

President Joseph Aoun’s comments came as the Trump administration is trying to expand the Abraham Accords signed in 2020 in which Israel signed historic pacts with United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In May, Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa said during a visit to France that his country is holding indirect talks with Israel to prevent military activities along their border from going out of control. Talks about peace between Israel and Syria have increased following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad from power in December.

Aoun added in comments released by his office that only the Lebanese state will have weapons in the future, and the decision on whether Lebanon would go to war or not would be for the Lebanese government.

Aoun’s comments were an apparent reference to the armed Hezbollah group that fought a 14-month war with Israel, during which it suffered major blows including the killing of some of its top political and military commanders.

Hezbollah says it has ended its armed presence near the border with Israel, but is refusing to disarm in the rest of Lebanon before Israel withdraws from five overlooking border points and ends its almost daily airstrikes on Lebanon.

Earlier this week, US envoy Tom Barrack met with Lebanese leaders in Beirut, saying he was satisfied with the Lebanese government’s response to a proposal to disarm Hezbollah.

Hezbollah’s weapons have been one of the principal sticking points since Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000. Since then, Hezbollah fought two wars with Israel, one in 2006, and the other starting a day after the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war in Gaza.

The Hezbollah-Israel war, which ended with a US-brokered ceasefire in November, left more than 4,000 people dead in Lebanon and caused destruction estimated at $11 billion. In Israel, 127 people, including 80 soldiers, were killed during the war.

“Peace is the state of no war and this is what is important for us in Lebanon at the present time,” Aoun was quoted as telling visitors on Friday. He added that “the matter of normalization (with Israel) is not included in Lebanon’s current foreign policy.”

Lebanon and Israel have been at a state of war since 1948.