SETTLEMENTS WIDELY CONSIDERED ILLEGAL
The Palestinian Authority, which has responsibility for the section of the West Bank where Friday’s shootings took place, said the incident was part of a broader assault on Palestinians.
“Israeli state-backed settler terrorism is intensifying into systematic pogroms across the occupied West Bank,” the Palestinian prime minister’s office said in a statement on X.
The Israeli military said troops sent to Qusra, which sits near several large Israeli settlements, had found graffiti and signs of arson and were searching for suspects. Police officers would be sent to collect evidence, it said.
“The security forces strongly condemn incidents of this kind, including harm to religious sites, and will continue to act decisively to maintain security and public order in the area,” the military said.
An Israeli military official said such violence by Israelis diverted the defence force’s attention from its primary mission of defence and counter-terrorism in a complex environment. The official said, however, that over the weekend troops arrested more than 130 individuals, including weapons traffickers, Hamas operatives, individuals involved in incitement and people planning imminent attacks.
In separate incidents, Palestinian officials said settlers had also tried to burn a mosque near Kour, southeast of Tulkarm, and attacked Palestinian workers at a stone-cutting facility in the town of Kafr Malik, near Ramallah.
Farid Jiyousi, a member of the Kour village council, said three settlers had tried to set the mosque ablaze at dawn but worshippers had put out the fire before it reached the mosque’s main area. “This is the first attack our village has experienced,” he said, adding that the attackers had also sprayed Hebrew graffiti on the mosque walls.
As part of a security clampdown across the West Bank over the weekend, Israeli forces arrested around 60 Palestinians from Saturday night, according to the Palestinian Prisoners Club, which tracks Palestinians in Israeli custody.
Most countries and UN bodies consider Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal, a position Israel rejects. The Palestinians seek the West Bank as the core of a future independent state, while Israel cites biblical and historical ties to the land. Netanyahu’s government, which opposes Palestinian statehood, has expanded settlement there at a rapid rate.
On Sunday, Pope Leo said he was following the worsening violence with deep concern and called for negotiations to reach “a just political solution”, as well as a rejection of actions that violate the status of holy sites belonging to every religious faith.