Middle East Monitor / February 27, 2023
The Deputy Head of the West Bank Settlement Council, Davidi Ben-Zion, called on Sunday night for extremist Jewish settlers to “wipe out” the village of Huwara. As illegal settlers attacked the neighbourhoods of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, Ben-Zion tweeted: “Enough with talk about building and strengthening the settlement, the deterrence needs to happen immediately and there is no room for mercy.”
Although he deleted the tweet, which was reported by most of the Israeli and Palestinian media, a screenshot shows that Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had “liked” it. The Times of Israel reported that while Smotrich “liked” the tweet before it was deleted, he also urged the settlers not to take the law into their hands.
A leading figure in the settlement movement spoke to Israel’s Kan public broadcaster on Monday morning saying that it was “shame” that the Israeli army removed settlers from Huwara. “Why should we stop? We are protecting the lives of Jews… It is a shame that the army even arrived here,” Daniella Weiss told Kan. She added that the settlers “have a lot of guns” so there is no need for a military presence. “Anyone who thinks that we have to use the army to deal with these attackers [the Palestinians living in Huwara]… is mistaken.”
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Eyewitness: ‘Settlers carried out new Nakba’ in Huwara
Middle East Monitor / February 27, 2023
Illegal Jewish settlers yesterday carried out a “new Nakba” against Palestinians in the neighbourhood of Huwara, an eyewitness has said.
Abdul Kareem, a primary school teacher, said: “There is no need to imagine how the Zionist gang carried out the Nakba in 1948. You just need to watch what Israeli Jewish settlers did in Huwara. They carried out a new Nakba,” referencing how Zionist gangs forced Palestinians out of their homes to make way for the creation of the state of Israel over 70 years ago.
During the settler attacks on Huwara, Burin, Za’tara and Asira al-Qabliyah, Palestinian families were seen fleeing their homes either before or after they were attacked by the settler mobs.
Meanwhile, former head of the Hawara Municipality, Mansour Addamidi, said: “They raided the Palestinian homes outside and inside the neighbourhood. We were totally helplessness.”
He told Haaretz: “The Israeli army and the settlers are on the same side and no one is stopping them. We no longer recognize who’s a soldier and who’s a settler, as many of the settlers are in military uniform and carrying weapons.”
A resident of Hawara told Haaretz that “the settlers behaved without any deterrence and moved freely for several hours,” stressing that some of them carried weapons and threw Molotov cocktails and stones at Palestinian houses.
He added: “They entered the town and just went everywhere. They set fire to houses and damaged many cars… We don’t even know the extent of the damage. We only heard screams from the houses, many families rushed out of their homes out of fear of being burned alive.”
Another eyewitness said “they were equipped with cutting tools.”
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Israel reels after Huwara shooting
Middle East Monitor / February 27, 2023
The killing of two Israeli settlers in Huwara village south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank on Sunday afternoon has sent shockwaves across Israel, especially among the media and politicians.
“The shocking attack came at a time when we are talking about reducing the army’s activities in the West Bank and a summit to satisfy the [Palestinian] authority,” former deputy defence minister Danny Danon MK.
According to Makor Rishon newspaper, Israeli troops are searching for the perpetrators. Yedioth Ahronoth, meanwhile, reported that the shooting took place at a time when a summit was held in Aqaba to stop the deterioration of the security situation in the occupied West Bank.
Channel 12 correspondent Ihad Hamo said that there is a lot of anger against the Aqaba summit. The operation, added Hamo, took place in a “soft area” for Israel’s security, where the Palestinian Authority has no control.
Security service leaders from the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and the United States are meeting in the Jordanian town of Aqaba to discuss ways to confront Palestinian resistance operations against Israel. According to Israeli Army Radio, ministers have called on the Israeli delegation to leave Aqaba.
