A Palestinian looks at the burnt-down cars in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus, June 21, 2023. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties in the northern West Bank on Tuesday night to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
JERUSALEM, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties in the northern West Bank on Tuesday night to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
In the northern West Bank town of Huwara, several cars and olive trees owned by Palestinians were torched by Jewish settlers, and gunshots were heard in the area, the Hebrew-language Channel 13 TV news reported.
Around 50 settlers rallied near the Tapuah junction, north of the settlement of Eli, where two Palestinian gunmen shot and killed four Israelis at a gas station hours earlier. Another group of settlers hurled stones at a Palestinian truck driver and sprayed him with tear gas, reported the Israeli media.
Video footage on social media platforms showed black smoke rising from several locations in Huwara.
An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed to Xinhua that settlers gathered at the entrance to the town of Beit Furik near Huwara in an attempt to enter the town. Israeli soldiers were dispatched to the scene to disperse the gathering.
About four months ago, hundreds of Israeli settlers raided Huwara and other Palestinian villages nearby in a late-night rampage, setting the town ablaze, leaving one Palestinian civilian dead and about 100 others injured. The incident marked the most severe spasm of settler violence in the West Bank in decades.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the scene of the shooting attack, urging the government to launch a large-scale military campaign in the West Bank.
"Another shooting and yet another one. We're like a sitting duck," Ben-Gvir said in a statement. He called on the Israeli Cabinet to "go on a wide military operation and resume the policy of targeted assassinations in the West Bank."
Ben-Gvir, a settler and the leader of the ultranationalist party Jewish Power, urged the Israeli army to take down Palestinian attackers' buildings and impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of attacking Israelis.
Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich and Minister of National Missions Orit Strook, both from the far-right Religious Zionism party, also visited the site of the attack and called for a wide-scale offensive.
The military said it has sent three more battalions to the West Bank due to the recent escalation of tensions.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant convened a security assessment in the Central Command headquarters in Tel Aviv with the army's chief-of-staff, the director of the Shin Bet internal security service, and other senior officials.
"I would like to remind all those who seek to harm us: All options are open," Netanyahu said in a video statement.
On Tuesday afternoon, two Palestinians armed with M16 rifles drove from the Palestinian village of Urif in the northern West Bank to a gas station outside the Jewish settlement of Eli, north of the Palestinian city of Ramallah. They first stormed a hummus restaurant, shooting and killing three people, before returning to the gas station, where they killed another person, according to a statement released by the Israeli army.
One gunman was shot dead by an Israeli passerby at the gas station and the other was killed in a pursuit. Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari told the press that the two gunmen were members of Hamas, an armed Palestinian movement and political party that rules the Gaza Strip.
The attack came a day after Israeli forces, supported by a rare use of an attack helicopter, killed six Palestinians and injured at least 90 others, in an hours-long gunbattle in Jenin in the northern West Bank.
The West Bank was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. Despite international criticism, Israel has maintained control over the territory, where the Palestinians wish to establish their future state. ■
This photo taken on June 21, 2023 shows the burnt-down cars in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties in the northern West Bank on Tuesday night to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
This photo taken on June 21, 2023 shows the burnt-down cars in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties in the northern West Bank on Tuesday night to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
A Palestinian checks his damaged shop in a village near the West Bank city of Nablus, June 21, 2023. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their properties in the northern West Bank on Tuesday night to retaliate for a Palestinian shooting attack that killed four Israelis hours earlier, in another move that might fuel the simmering Israeli-Palestinian tensions. (Photo by Ayman Nobani/Xinhua)
