AL-MUGHAYYER, West Bank
\nThe Israeli settlers who rampaged through the West Bank village of al-Mughayyer on April 12 came in greater numbers and carried more weapons than during any of the previous raids on the Palestinian community, residents said.
\nDays later, torched homes and cars still bear testament to the attack, which residents said lasted several hours and that they said Israeli soldiers did nothing to stop.
\nWith few means to defend themselves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, they fear more such assaults on the village.
\n\u201cWe have stones and they have weapons, and the army supports the settlers,\u201d said Abdullatif Abu Alia, whose house came under attack. His roof was spattered with the blood of Palestinians wounded as they tried to repel the attackers with rocks. One of them, his relative Jihad Abu Alia, was shot and killed, he said.
\n\u201cOf course, the aim is to force displacement,\u201d he added.
\nAl-Mughayyer was one of several Palestinian villages raided by settlers over several days beginning April 12, an escalation that began after a 14-year-old Israeli went missing. His body was discovered not far from al-Mughayyer the following day.
\nIsrael said he was killed in a terrorist attack.
\nViolence in the West Bank, seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, was already surging before the Gaza war began in October – fuelling further bloodshed in the territory.
\nSettler violence is a source of growing concern among Israel\u2019s Western allies. A number of countries, including the United States, have imposed sanctions on violent settlers and urged Israel to do more to stop the violence.
\nWashington imposed sanctions on Friday on an ally of Israel\u2019s far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence.
\nThe Israeli military said confrontations had spread in the area as a result of the teenager\u2019s killing, and included \u201cexchanges of gunfire, mutual stone throwing and property arson in which Israeli and Palestinian civilians were injured\u201d.
\nAsked about residents\u2019 accusations that soldiers had done nothing to stop the al-Mughayyer attack, the military said the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) and security forces operated with the aim of protecting \u201cthe property and lives of all citizens and dispersing the confrontations\u201d.<\/p>\n
GUNSHOT WOUNDS
\nAmeen Abu Alia, the head of al-Mughayyer\u2019s municipal council, said 45 Palestinians suffered gunshot wounds in the attack, which began after hundreds of settlers had congregated on a road near the village.
\nIsraeli troops arrived shortly before it started, setting up road blocks and a cordon which left houses on the village outskirts cut off from its centre, meaning villagers could not to go to aid those who were under attack, he said.
\nThe soldiers also prevented ambulances from reaching the area to treat wounded people, he said.
\nThe Israeli military said ambulances \u201cwere delayed for a security check and then they were given the authorization to continue\u201d.
\nAbu Alia, the municipal council head, accused the Israeli army of providing security for the settler raid, which the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said had been \u201caccompanied by Israeli forces\u201d.
\nComplaints about soldiers\u2019 behaviour that was not in accordance with orders will be examined, the Israeli military said.
\nIsrael has settled the West Bank extensively since 1967, viewing it as the biblical Judea and Samaria and critical to Israel\u2019s security. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu\u2019s promotion of settlement growth has drawn U.S. criticism.
\nThe settlements have eaten up West Bank land where Palestinians have long aimed to establish an independent state that would also include the Gaza Strip and have East Jerusalem as its capital.<\/p>\n
FIRE TRUCK TORCHED, SHEEP STOLEN
\nHis home torched in the attack, Shehadah Abu Rasheed has pitched a tent to provide temporary shelter. Inside, the walls of the house were charred black. Abu Rasheed said his wife was hit by a settler and one of his four children lightly wounded by gunfire.
\nThe settlers also torched a fire truck sent to al-Mughayyer by the Palestinian civil defence service during the attack, the civil defence said. Its charred remains were being loaded onto a truck when Reuters journalists visited on Wednesday.
\nOCHA reported that the settlers fully burnt 21 houses in al-Mughayyer, displacing 86 Palestinians, and that 32 vehicles were damaged, and some 220 sheep were killed or stolen.
\nIt was unconfirmed if the Palestinian man who died during the raid was killed by Israeli forces or settlers, it said.
\nFour of seven Palestinians killed in the West Bank between April 12 and 15 died in incidents involving Israeli settlers in a series of attacks on Palestinian communities during and after the search for the 14-year-old Israeli, OCHA reported. Another Palestinian man was killed in a settler raid on April 20, the Palestinian health ministry said.
\nThe United States, Britain and the European Union have all imposed sanctions on violent settlers in recent months.
\nU.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said at an April 15 briefing that Washington condemned last weekend\u2019s violence against Palestinians just as strongly as it condemned the murder of the 14-year-old Israeli. The United States has said it is \u201cincredibly concerned\u201d that Israeli security forces were not doing enough to stop settler violence, he said.
\nAl-Mughayyer is located in a part of the West Bank where Israel has full security control under interim peace accords which Palestinian leaders signed three decades ago in the belief they would eventually lead to an independent state.
\nThe arrangements mean most of the West Bank is off limits to the security forces of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority. Abdullatif Abu Alia, the al-Mughayyer resident, said the most he hoped for from the Palestinian government was help to erect a protective fence around his house and reinforce the windows.
\n\u201cWhat else can they do? They can\u2019t even protect themselves,\u201d he said, referring to Israeli raids into Palestinian cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AL-MUGHAYYER, West Bank The Israeli settlers who rampaged through the West Bank village of al-Mughayyer on April 12 came in greater numbers and carried more weapons than during any of the previous raids on the Palestinian community, residents said. Days later, torched homes and cars still bear testament to the attack, which residents said lasted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-401754","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n