The chief spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces on Thursday condemned rampages by settlers in the West Bank towns of Turmus Ayya and Urif, which have seen hundreds set fire to homes, cars and fields and terrorized residents, and the death of a Palestinian man in unclear circumstances.
Speaking to Army Radio, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari acknowledged that the IDF had failed to prevent the unrest and described the attack as “very serious”.
“This is an incident that creates terror and escalation, and takes the population not involved in the terror and fuels it [toward extremism]while preventing the IDF from fighting terror in operational activities,” he added.
Meanwhile, religious Zionist MP Simcha Rothman, the far-right chairman of the Knesset’s constitutional committee and one of the leading proponents of judicial reform, compared the violent rioters to anti-government protesters and complained to Army Radio that “if you protest it [judicial] “A reform you can demand to take up arms and be violent, but if you’re protesting an ‘inconsequential’ like killing four people, isn’t that okay?”
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The protests against government efforts to curtail the powers of the judiciary have been largely peaceful, although some have seen limited clashes between activists and police, particularly as the former attempted to block main roads.
Rothman may also have been referring to some sporadic comments from protesters that suggested the possible use of force to combat the overhaul. For example, prominent lawyer David Hodek said in February, “If someone is forcing me to live under a dictatorship and I have no other choice, I will not hesitate to use live fire.” Hodek later apologized when police opened an investigation .
No arrests have been reported in the riots in Turmus Ayya, during which settlers set fire to a school and tried to set fire to a mosque, Haaretz reported. Vandals from the Yitzhar settlement told Kan News that they had cut power to the nearby Palestinian village of Urif.
Smoke rises from the West Bank town of Turmus Ayya, Wednesday, June 21, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health said one Palestinian was killed and another 12 injured in the attack by settlers and subsequent clashes with Israeli troops and police in Turmus Ayya. At least four Palestinians were injured by gunfire, including one in serious condition, the ministry said.
The man killed was 27-year-old Omar Qattin, who local residents said was a father of two young children and worked as an electrician for the local community.
It was unclear if Qattin was the one shot by police, although Palestinian witnesses said the man killed was nowhere near Israeli forces when he was shot. It was also unclear who shot the other four Palestinians.
Several countries, including the United States, strongly condemned the killing spree.
Tensions between Israel and the Palestinians have escalated over the past year, as the military conducted raids in the West Bank almost nightly and a series of deadly Palestinian terrorist attacks.
Since the beginning of the year, 24 people have been killed in Palestinian attacks in Israel and the West Bank, including 17-year-old Nachman Mordoff, 17-year-old Elisha Anteman, 21-year-old Harel Masood and 64-year-old Ofer Fayerman, who were killed on Tuesday.
Friends and family attend the funeral of 17-year-old Nachman Mordoff at Shilo Cemetery on June 21, 2023, who was killed in a terrorist attack near the West Bank settlement of Eli. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
According to a Times of Israel tally, 132 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank during that period, most of them in clashes with security forces or in attacks, but some were innocent civilians and others were killed under unclear circumstances.
A new West Bank outpost was set up a few kilometers from the settlement on Wednesday evening in response to the Eli attack.
Photos provided by Peace Now showed five prefabricated metal wall buildings being erected on the site, just outside the northern West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Levona, across from Route 60 from Eli.
Also featured in the images are heavy earthmoving bulldozers and backhoe drills, as well as a newly dug dirt access road to the site.
The IDF, the Department of Defense, the civilian administration, and the office of Treasury Secretary Bezalel Smotrich — who is an adjunct minister in the Department of Defense responsible for West Bank civil affairs — did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how such complex, illegal construction work went on without their intervention were carried out and whether the site would be evacuated.
In addition, dozens and possibly hundreds of settler activists have established themselves in the illegal, often-evacuated Evyatar outpost several kilometers north of Eli, hosting events and activities there.