Israel Arrests Suspects in Settler Rampage Described by General as ‘Pogrom’

28 February 2023: A view of a burnt and destroyed vehicle in the town of Huwara after settlers set houses and cars on fire following the death of two Israelis when their vehicle was fired on at a crossroads south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. (dpa)
28 February 2023: A view of a burnt and destroyed vehicle in the town of Huwara after settlers set houses and cars on fire following the death of two Israelis when their vehicle was fired on at a crossroads south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. (dpa)
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Israel Arrests Suspects in Settler Rampage Described by General as ‘Pogrom’

28 February 2023: A view of a burnt and destroyed vehicle in the town of Huwara after settlers set houses and cars on fire following the death of two Israelis when their vehicle was fired on at a crossroads south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. (dpa)
28 February 2023: A view of a burnt and destroyed vehicle in the town of Huwara after settlers set houses and cars on fire following the death of two Israelis when their vehicle was fired on at a crossroads south of the Palestinian city of Nablus. (dpa)

Police have arrested six suspects over a settler rampage in the occupied West Bank earlier this week that an Israeli general described as a "pogrom" and which followed a deadly Palestinian gun attack.

A Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli brothers on Sunday as they were driving in the occupied West Bank, prompting attacks by Israeli settlers on houses and cars during which one Palestinian was killed, officials say.

Israeli police said on Wednesday they expected to make more arrests during their ongoing investigation into the settler violence in and around Huwara, a Palestinian village where the two Israeli brothers from a nearby settlement were shot dead.

Major General Yehuda Fuchs, who commands the Israeli military in the area, said his forces had prepared for attempted settler retribution but had been surprised by the intensity of the violence, which he said was perpetrated by dozens of people.

"The incident in Huwara was a pogrom carried out by outlaws," he told N12 News late on Tuesday.

A "pogrom" is a mob attack, often approved by authorities, against a religious, racial, or national minority. The term is usually applied to attacks on Jews in the Russian Empire in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Political tensions

Fuchs' comments came amid increased tensions within the nationalist-religious government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which includes hard-line settlers demanding tough action against Palestinian attacks.

One of them, far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has called on people "not to take the law into their own hands", while his Jewish Power party has accused Netanyahu of being weak on terrorism.

"This is not 'taking the law into your own hands,' because lawful people don't sow terror among the (civilian) population," said Fuchs. "Collective punishment doesn't help combating terrorism, on the contrary it might even cause terrorism."

With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and Jewish Passover festival weeks away, foreign mediators have sought to tamp down tensions that surged after a spate of deadly Palestinian street attacks and lethal Israeli military raids.

"I'm worried," said US Ambassador Tom Nides at Tel Aviv University's conference of the Institute for National Security Studies late on Tuesday.

"This is going to be a very complicated period of time we're about to walk into, we've got to keep things as calm as possible to keep things from getting out of control, which could easily happen," said Nides.



Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
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Oxfam: Only 12 Trucks Delivered Food, Water in North Gaza Governorate since October

Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File
Israel's government has faced accusations that it systematically hinders aid reaching Gaza. Omar AL-QATTAA / AFP/File

Just 12 trucks distributed food and water in northern Gaza in two-and-a-half months, aid group Oxfam said on Sunday, raising the alarm over the worsening humanitarian situation in the besieged territory.
"Of the meager 34 trucks of food and water given permission to enter the North Gaza Governorate over the last 2.5 months, deliberate delays and systematic obstructions by the Israeli military meant that just twelve managed to distribute aid to starving Palestinian civilians," Oxfam said in a statement, in a count that included deliveries through Saturday.
"For three of these, once the food and water had been delivered to the school where people were sheltering, it was then cleared and shelled within hours," Oxfam added.
Israel, which has tightly controlled aid entering the Hamas-ruled territory since the outbreak of the war, often blames what it says is the inability of relief organizations to handle and distribute large quantities of aid, AFP said.
In a report focused on water, New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday detailed what it called deliberate efforts by Israeli authorities "of a systematic nature" to deprive Gazans of water, which had "likely caused thousands of deaths... and will likely continue to cause deaths."
They were the latest in a series of accusations leveled against Israel -- and denied by the country -- during its 14-month war against Palestinian Hamas group.
The Gaza war was sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel that claimed the lives of 1,208 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
'Access blocked'
Since then, Israel's retaliatory offensive has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, a majority of them civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory's health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Oxfam said that it and other international aid groups have been "continually prevented from delivering life-saving aid" in northern Gaza since October 6 this year, when Israel intensified its bombardment of the territory.
"Thousands of people are estimated to still be cut off, but with humanitarian access blocked it's impossible to know exact numbers," Oxfam said.
"At the beginning of December, humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza were receiving calls from vulnerable people trapped in homes and shelters that had completely run out of food and water."
Oxfam highlighted one instance of an aid delivery in November being disrupted by Israeli authorities.
"A convoy of 11 trucks last month was initially held up at the holding point by the Israeli military at Jabalia, where some food was taken by starving civilians," it said.
"After the green light to proceed to the destination was received, the trucks were then stopped further on at a military checkpoint. Soldiers forced the drivers to offload the aid in a militarized zone, which desperate civilians had no access to."
The UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution on Thursday asking the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to assess Israel's obligations to assist Palestinians.