Tag: palestine news

University protests: Violence, chaos erupts on campuses as protesters and counter-protesters clash over the war in Gaza

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A brawl erupted at University of California, Los Angeles, (UCLA) after a pro-Palestinian encampment was “forcefully attacked,” the school’s chancellor said on May 1, while activists at the University of Wisconsin in Madison clashed with police officers who destroyed their tents, in a day of escalating violence on some college campuses over the war in Gaza.

Fifteen people were injured during the UCLA confrontation, including one person who was hospitalized, according to the president of the University of California system. The chaotic scenes unfolded on Wednesday after police burst into a building occupied by anti-war protesters at Columbia University on Tuesday night, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

Chancellor Gene Block at UCLA said in a statement that “a group of instigators” came on campus Tuesday to “forcefully attack” the pro-Palestinian encampment, prompting the school to ask for assistance from outside law enforcement.

After a couple of hours of scuffles between dueling demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles, police wearing helmets and face shields separated the groups and restored calm. Later Wednesday, pro-Palestinian protesters rebuilt a barricade around their encampment. There were no counter-protesters in sight, and law enforcement officers were deployed throughout the campus.

Also read | Demonstrations roil U.S. campuses ahead of graduations as protesters spar over the war in Gaza

In Madison on Wednesday, police with shields removed all but one tent and shoved protesters, resulting in a scrum. Four officers were injured, including a state trooper who was hit in the head with a skateboard, according to University of Wisconsin police spokesperson Marc Lovicott.

Within hours, protesters had erected more tents at the UW campus.

More than 30 people were arrested, most of them released without charges, but four were charged with battering law enforcement, police said.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century. The ensuing police crackdowns echoed actions decades ago against a much larger protest movement protesting the Vietnam War.

This is all playing out in an election year in the U.S., raising questions about whether young voters — who are critical for Democrats — will back President Joe Biden’s reelection effort, given his staunch support of Israel.

There have been confrontations with law enforcement and more than 1,300 arrests. In rare instances, university officials and protest leaders struck agreements to restrict the disruption to campus life and upcoming commencement ceremonies.

The clashes at UCLA erupted when the pro-Palestinian protesters tried to expand their encampment late Tuesday night. Counter-protesters then tried to pull down the parade barricades, plywood and wooden pallets surrounding the encampment. In the chaos, firecrackers exploded.

Police left the scene around 11.30 p.m., and police in riot gear showed up at 1.45 a.m. to establish a perimeter. Pro-Israel protesters threw traffic cones and chairs, released pepper spray, and tore down barriers around the encampment. Some from the pro-Palestinian camp hopped over the barriers and scuffled with the counter-protesters.

No one was arrested. Officials have not clarified whether the demonstrators were all students.

Chancellor Block offered his sympathy to those who were injured and anyone who feels unsafe on campus, and promised the university will conduct a thorough investigation that he said may lead to arrests, expulsions and dismissals. In addition, Mr. Block said the administration is examining its own security response.

“However one feels about the encampment, this attack on our students, faculty and community members was utterly unacceptable,” Mr. Block said. “It has shaken our campus to its core and — adding to other abhorrent incidents that we have witnessed and that have circulated on social media over the past several days — further damaged our community’s sense of security.”

Also read | More than 100 arrested at U.S. university pro-Palestinian protests

UCLA senior Edgar Gomez, who ventured outside his dorm to watch the ruckus unfold, said he saw counter-protesters tearing up Palestinian flags, and pepper spray hung in the air as the two sides fought.

“I’ve never seen this happen before,” said Mr. Gomez, adding that he isn’t with either group. “I’ve never seen people get so heated.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both called for accountability of those involved in the melee. A spokesperson for the governor said outside law enforcement was sent to the campus after “unacceptable” delays in the university’s police force response to the clashes.

The nationwide campus demonstrations began at Columbia to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza after Hamas launched a deadly attack on southern Israel on October 7. Militants killed about 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages. Vowing to stamp out Hamas, Israel has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there.

Late Tuesday, New York City police officers entered Columbia’s campus and cleared a tent encampment, along with Hamilton Hall where a stream of officers used a ladder to climb through a second-floor window, and police said protesters inside presented no substantial resistance. They had seized the Ivy League school building about 20 hours earlier.

Protesters first set up a tent encampment at Columbia almost two weeks ago. The school sent in police to clear the tents the following day, arresting more than 100 people. But the protesters returned.

Negotiations between the protesters and the college ground to a halt in recent days, and the school set a Monday deadline for the activists to abandon the tent encampment or be suspended.

Instead, protesters took over Hamilton Hall early Tuesday, carrying in furniture and metal barricades.

In a letter to senior police officials, Columbia President Nemat Shafik, who uses the first name Minouche, said the administration asked officers to remove protesters from the occupied building and a tent encampment “with the utmost regret.”

Columbia on Wednesday called Hamilton Hall “an active crime scene” under NYPD investigation and limited campus access to people with Columbia identification and essential personnel, barring the media.

“After the University learned overnight that Hamilton Hall had been occupied, vandalized, and blockaded, we were left with no choice,” the school said in a statement.

Fabien Lugo, a first-year accounting student who said he was not involved in the protests, said he opposed the university’s decision to call in police.

“This is too intense,” he said. “It feels like more of an escalation than a de-escalation.”

Blocks away from Columbia, at The City College of New York, demonstrators were in a standoff with police outside the public college’s main gate. Video posted on social media by reporters late Tuesday showed officers forcing some people to the ground and shoving others as they cleared the street and sidewalks.

Close to 300 protesters were arrested in the crackdowns at Columbia and City College, officials said.

Brown University, another Ivy League school, reached an agreement Tuesday with protesters on its Rhode Island campus. Demonstrators closed their encampment after administrators agreed to consider a vote to divest from Israel in October — apparently the first U.S. college to agree to such a demand.

Meanwhile, protest encampments were cleared or closed up voluntarily at schools from Flagstaff, Arizona, to New Orleans.

At Portland State in Oregon, school officials said some 50 protesters left a library on campus that had been occupied since Monday after administrators offered not to seek criminal charges or other discipline. An unknown number of people remained in the library Wednesday.

Israel and its supporters have branded the university protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, organizers of the protests, some of whom are Jewish, say it is a peaceful movement aimed at defending Palestinian rights and protesting the war.

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Palestine prepares to accept the ‘new reality’ in Gaza Strip with a fresh government

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The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced his government’s resignation on Monday, seen as the first step in a reform process urged by the United States as part of its latest ambitious plans to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

But it will do little to address the authority’s longstanding lack of legitimacy among its own people or its strained relations with Israel. Both pose major obstacles to U.S. plans calling for the PA, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern postwar Gaza ahead of eventual statehood.

That’s assuming that the war in Gaza ends with the defeat of the Hamas militant group — an Israeli and U.S. goal that seems elusive nearly five months into the gruelling war that has killed almost 30,000 Palestinians and pushed the territory to the brink of famine.

Also Read | Islamist leadership | The men who run Hamas

Here’s a look at the government shakeup and what it means for the Israel-Hamas war.

The PA was created in the early 1990s through interim peace agreements signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, then led by Yasser Arafat.

It was granted limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank and Gaza ahead of what the Palestinians hoped would be full statehood in both territories as well as east Jerusalem, lands that Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

But the sides were unable to reach a final agreement through several rounds of peace talks. Mahmoud Abbas was elected president of the PA in 2005, months after Arafat’s death. Hamas won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections the following year, triggering an international boycott of the PA.

A power struggle between Mr. Abbas’ secular Fatah party and Hamas boiled over in the summer of 2007, with Hamas seizing power in Gaza after a week of street battles. That effectively confined Mr. Abbas’ authority to parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Mr. Abbas recognises Israel, is opposed to armed struggle and is committed to a two-state solution. His security forces have cooperated with the Israeli military to crack down on Hamas and other armed groups, and his government has worked with Israel to facilitate work permits, medical travel and other civilian affairs.

In announcing his resignation, Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said new arrangements were needed to address “the new reality in the Gaza Strip.”

Mr. Abbas accepted Mr. Shtayyeh’s resignation and is expected to replace him with Mohammad Mustafa, a U.S.-educated economist who has held senior positions at the World Bank and currently leads the Palestine Investment Fund. He was deputy prime minister and economy minister from 2013-2015.

As a political independent and not a Fatah loyalist like Mr. Shtayyeh, Mr. Mustafa’s appointment would likely be welcomed by the U.S., Israel and other countries.

OPINION | An expanding Gaza war, with no endgame in sight

Mr. Mustafa has no political base of his own, and the 88-year-old Mr. Abbas will still have the final say on any major policies. Still, the appointment would convey the image of a reformed, professional PA that can run Gaza, which is important for the U.S.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said it was up to the Palestinians to choose their leaders, but that the U.S. welcomes any steps to “reform and revitalise” the PA.

“We think those steps are positive. We think that they’re an important step to achieving a reunited Gaza and West Bank under the Palestinian Authority.”

Mr. Abbas’ popularity has plummeted in recent years, with polls consistently finding that a large majority of Palestinians want him to resign. The PA’s security coordination with Israel is extremely unpopular, causing many Palestinians to view it as a subcontractor of the occupation.

Both the PA and Hamas have cracked down on dissent in the territories they control, violently suppressing protests and jailing and torturing critics. Mr. Abbas’ mandate expired in 2009 but he has refused to hold elections, citing Israeli restrictions.

Hamas, whose popularity has soared during this and previous rounds of violence, would likely do well in any free election.

But the most popular Palestinian leader by far is Marwan Barghouti, a Fatah leader who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison after a 2004 terrorism conviction.

Hamas is demanding his release in exchange for some of the hostages it captured in the October 7 attack that ignited the war, but Israel has refused.

Hamas has called for all the Palestinian factions to establish an interim government to prepare the way for elections. But Israel, the U.S. and other Western countries are likely to boycott any Palestinian body that includes the militant group, which they view as a terrorist organisation.

Also Read | Israel ready to halt war in Gaza during Ramadan if hostage deal is reached: Biden

Israel prefers the PA to Hamas. But even though they cooperate on security matters, Israel accuses the PA of inciting terrorism, and the PA accuses Israel of apartheid and genocide.

Israel’s criticism largely focuses on the PA’s provision of financial aid to the families of Palestinian prisoners and Palestinians killed by Israeli forces — including militants who killed Israelis. Israel says the payments incentivise terrorism. The PA portrays them as social welfare for victims of the occupation.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the PA should have no role in postwar Gaza. He says Israel will maintain open-ended security control over the territory while local Palestinian leaders administer civilian affairs. Netanyahu’s government is opposed to Palestinian statehood.

The U.S. has outlined a path to a broader postwar settlement in which Saudi Arabia would recognise Israel and join other Arab states and a revitalised PA in helping to rebuild and govern Gaza — all in exchange for a credible path to an independent Palestinian state.

The reform of the PA represents a small part of that package, which has yet to win over the Israeli government.

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Israel- Hamas conflict: At least 70 are killed in central Gaza, in one of the war’s deadliest strikes

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At least 70 people were killed in Gaza in one of the deadliest strikes of the war, health officials said Sunday, while the number of Israeli soldiers killed in combat over the weekend rose to 15.

Associated Press journalists at a nearby hospital watched frantic Palestinians carry the dead, including a baby, and wounded following the strike on the Maghazi refugee camp east of Deir al-Balah. One bloodied young girl looked stunned while her body was checked for broken bones.

Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the toll was likely to rise. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

“We were all targeted,” said Ahmad Turokmani, who lost several family members including his daughter and grandson. “There is no safe place in Gaza anyway.”

As Christmas Eve fell, smoke rose over the besieged territory, while in the West Bank Bethlehem was hushed, its holiday celebrations called off. In neighboring Egypt, tentative efforts continued on a deal for another exchange of hostages for Palestinians held by Israel.

The war has devastated parts of Gaza, killed roughly 20,400 Palestinians and displaced almost all of the territory’s 2.3 million people.

The mounting death toll among Israeli troops — 154 since the ground offensive began — could erode public support for the war, which was sparked when Hamas-led militants stormed communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 and taking 240 hostage.

Israelis still largely stand behind the country’s stated goals of crushing Hamas’ governing and military capabilities and releasing the remaining 129 captives. That’s despite rising international pressure against Israel’s offensive, and the soaring death toll and unprecedented suffering among Palestinians.

“The war exacts a very heavy price from us, but we have no choice but to continue fighting,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.

In a nationally televised speech, Israeli President Isaac Herzog appealed for the country to remain united. “This moment is a test. We will not break nor blink,” he said.

There has been widespread anger against his government, which many criticize for failing to protect civilians on Oct. 7 and promoting policies that allowed Hamas to gain strength over the years. Netanyahu has avoided accepting responsibility for the military and policy failures.

“Over time, the public will find it hard to ignore the heavy price paid, as well as the suspicion that the aims that were loudly heralded are still far from being attained, and that Hamas is showing no signs of capitulating in the near future,” wrote Amos Harel, military affairs commentator for the Haaretz newspaper.

The Israeli military said it had completed the dismantling of Hamas’ underground headquarters in northern Gaza, part of an operation to take down the vast tunnel network and kill off top commanders that Israeli leaders have said could take months.

Efforts toward negotiations continued. The head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Ziyad al-Nakhalah, arrived in Egypt for talks. The militant group, which also took part in the Oct. 7 attack, said it was prepared to consider releasing hostages only after fighting ends. Hamas’ top leader Ismail Haniyeh traveled to Cairo for talks days earlier.

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history. More than two-thirds of the 20,000 Palestinians killed have been women and children, according to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed in an Israeli drone attack while inside al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, a part of Gaza where Israel’s military believes Hamas leaders are hiding.

An Israeli strike overnight hit a house in a refugee camp west of the city of Rafah, on Gaza’s border with Egypt. At least two men were killed, according to Associated Press journalists in the hospital where the bodies were taken.

At least two people were killed and six others wounded when a missile stuck a building in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

And Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment and gunfire in Jabaliya, an area north of Gaza City that Israel had claimed to control. Hamas’ military arm said its fighters shelled Israeli troops in Jabaliya and Jabaliya refugee camp.

Israel faces international criticism for the civilian death toll but it blames Hamas, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7. It says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, without presenting evidence.

Israel also faces allegations of mistreating Palestinian men and teenage boys detained in homes, shelters, hospitals and elsewhere during the offensive. It has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants are quickly released.

Speaking to the AP from a hospital bed in Rafah after his release, Khamis al-Burdainy of Gaza City said Israeli forces detained him after tanks and bulldozers partly destroyed his home. He said men were handcuffed and blindfolded.

“We didn’t sleep. We didn’t get food and water,” he said, crying and covering his face.

Another released detainee, Mohammed Salem, from the Gaza City neighborhood of Shijaiyah, said Israeli troops beat them. “We were humiliated,” he said. “A female soldier would come and beat an old man, aged 72 years old.”

The United Nations Security Council has passed a watered-down resolution calling for the speedy delivery of humanitarian aid for hungry and desperate Palestinians and the release of all the hostages, but not for a cease-fire.

But it was not immediately clear how and when deliveries of food, medical supplies and other aid, far below the daily average of 500 before the war, would accelerate. Trucks enter through two crossings: Rafah, and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. Wael Abu Omar, a spokesman for the Palestinian Crossings Authority, said 123 aid trucks entered Gaza on Sunday,

The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, reiterated U.N. calls for a humanitarian cease-fire, adding on social media that “the decimation of the Gaza health system is a tragedy.”

Amid concerns about a wider regional conflict, the U.S. Central Command said a patrol ship in the Red Sea on Saturday shot down four drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas in Yemen, a while two Houthi anti-ship ballistic missiles were fired into international shipping lanes.

The Iran-backed Houthis say their attacks are aimed at Israel-linked ships in an effort to stop the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

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Israel strikes 2 homes, killing more than 90 Palestinians while hundreds have been detained

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More than 90 Palestinians, including dozens from an extended family, were killed in Israeli airstrikes on two homes, rescuers and hospital officials said Saturday, a day after the UN chief warned again that nowhere is safe in Gaza and that Israel’s offensive is creating “massive obstacles” to distribution of humanitarian aid.

Also Saturday, the Israeli military said troops arrested hundreds of alleged militants in Gaza over the past week and transferred more than 200 of them to Israel for further interrogation, providing rare details on a controversial policy of mass roundups of Palestinian men.

The army said more than 700 people with alleged ties to the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad have so far been sent to Israeli lockups.

Israel declared war after Hamas gunmen stormed across the border on Oct. 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking some 240 hostages.

More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war to destroy Hamas and more than 53,000 have been wounded, according to health officials in Gaza, a besieged territory ruled by the Islamic militant group for the past 16 years.

Despite mounting international calls for a cease-fire, Israel has vowed to keep up the fight until Hamas is destroyed and removed from power in Gaza and all the hostages are freed.

The Biden administration has shielded Israel in the diplomatic arena. On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a watered-down resolution that calls for immediately speeding up aid deliveries to desperate civilians in Gaza, but not for a cease-fire.

The Health Ministry in Gaza on Saturday evening said 201 people had been killed over the past 24 hours.

On Friday, airstrikes flattened two homes, one in Gaza City and the other in the urban refugee camp of Nuseirat in the center of the territory.

The Gaza City strike killed 76 people from the al-Mughrabi family, making it one of the deadliest of the war, said Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza’s Civil Defense department. He provided the names of 16 heads of households within the family, and said the dead included women and children.

Among those killed were Issam al-Mughrabi, a veteran employee of the UN Development Program, his wife, and their five children.

“The loss of Issam and his family has deeply affected us all. The UN and civilians in Gaza are not a target,” said Achim Steiner, the head of the agency. “This war must end.” Later Friday, a strike pulverized the Nuseirat home of Mohammed Khalifa, a local TV journalist, killing him and at least 14 others, according to officials at the nearby Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital where the bodies were taken. Mourners held funeral prayers Saturday in the hospital’s courtyard while rescue teams continued to search for survivors. The legs of at least two bodies were seen under what appeared to be a collapsed roof.


Also Read | Gaza in flames: On Israel’s expanding offensive

Israel blames Hamas for the high civilian death toll, citing the militants’ use of crowded residential areas and tunnels. Israel has launched thousands of airstrikes since Oct. 7, and has largely refrained from commenting on specific attacks.

Israel’s offensive has been one of the most devastating military campaigns in recent history, displacing nearly 85 per cent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people and leveling wide swaths of the tiny coastal enclave. More than half a million people in Gaza — a quarter of the population — are starving, according to a report this week from the United Nations and other agencies.

The military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said late Friday that forces are widening the ground offensive “to additional areas of the strip, with a focus on the south.” He said operations were also continuing in the northern half of Gaza, the initial focus of Israel’s ground offensive. The army said that it carried out airstrikes against Hamas fighters in several locations of Gaza City.

The army statement on detentions followed earlier Palestinian reports of large-scale roundups of teenage boys and men from homes, shelters and hospitals in northern Gaza where ground troops have established firmer control. Some of the released detainees have said they were stripped to their underwear, beaten and held for days with minimal water.

Hamas called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and other global organizations to put pressure on Israeli authorities to reveal the whereabouts and conditions of hundreds of people in Gaza who were detained.

Israel’s military has denied abuse allegations and said those without links to militants were quickly released.


Also Read | Israel orders more Gaza evacuations as envoys seek truce

Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas militants, including about 2,000 in the past three weeks, but has not presented evidence. It says 139 of its soldiers have been killed in the ground offensive.

Following the UN resolution, it was not immediately clear how and when aid deliveries would accelerate. Currently, trucks enter through two crossings — Rafah on the border with Egypt and Kerem Shalom on the border with Israel. On Friday, fewer than 100 trucks entered the crossings, the UN said — far below the daily average of 500 before the war.

Both crossings were closed Saturday by mutual agreement among Israel, Egypt and the UN, Israeli officials said.

Ahead of the Security Council vote, the US negotiated the removal of language that would have given the UN authority to inspect aid going into Gaza, something Israel says it must continue to do itself to ensure material does not reach Hamas.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday that it’s a mistake to measure the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation by the number of trucks.

“The real problem is that the way Israel is conducting this offensive is creating massive obstacles to the distribution of humanitarian aid inside Gaza,” he said. He said the prerequisites for an effective aid operation don’t exist: security, staff who can work in safety, logistical capacity and the resumption of commercial activity.

Mr. Guterres said “much more is needed immediately” to end the “nightmare” for people in Gaza.

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Netanyahu faces mounting security challenges as violence spirals in West Bank

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Benjamin Netanyahu and his loyalists released a brief cry of victory on June 22 morning as the judges at Jerusalem’s District Court told the prosecution that it “would be difficult” to prove allegations of bribery against the Prime Minister in one of the central cases currently deliberated, commonly known as Case 4000. This was seen by Mr. Netanyahu’s team as proof that charges were trumped up.


EDITORIAL | Spiralling violence: On the West Bank

But the next day, Israeli Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor, Gali Baharav-Myara, stated that prosecution will continue, nevertheless. Adv. Boaz Ben-Tzur, head of Mr. Netanyahu’s legal team, called the decision “haphazard and outrageous”.

Military escalation

But the legal challenges Mr. Netanyahu is dealing with have been dwarfed by the mounting security and political challenges his administration is facing. The incidents of the last week left behind a trail of attacks and armed clashed of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) with Palestinian gunmen, and later with radical settler groups, which included military escalation not witnessed since the second Intifada, 20 years ago.

The crisis broke out on early Monday morning (June 19), when IDF special forces entered Burkin and the Jenin Refugee Camp to arrest two affiliates of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), who had allegedly been involved in planning recent shooting attacks on Israelis. On their way out of the camp, Palestinians detonated an IED which incapacitated several of the armored personnel carriers, wounding seven soldiers. The IDF top brass views the incident as particularly worrisome, as it shows footprints of Iranian military training and tactics used by their proxies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.

As the convoy called in for rescue, a fierce gunbattle developed, which raged on for 11 hours. The IDF scrambled two Apache attack helicopters to secure the evacuation, in what was the first time the Israeli Air Force fought in the territories since the second Intifada of 2000-2005.

File picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
| Photo Credit:
via Reuters

At the end of the battle, over 30 Palestinians were wounded and seven dead, including a 15-year-old boy, Ahmed Sakr, and 15-year-old girl, Sedil Naghaghiya.

The UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) issued a statement saying that it “deplores the death by live ammunition of two Palestinian refugee children”. Israeli leadership rejected the accusations, saying as all the dead, including the young boy, were identified by Hamas and the PIJ as their own. Even Naghaghiya’s body was wrapped in PIJ flag for her funeral procession.

Attack in Eli

But violence didn’t end there. On Tuesday afternoon (June 20), two Hamas gunmen entered a gas station adjacent to the settlement of Eli and opened fire on diners at the Hummus Eliyahu restaurant, killing four Israelis: Nahman Mordoff (17), Elisha Anteman (18), Harel Masood (21), and 63-year-old Ofer Fayerman, and injuring three others.

The gunmen, identified as Muhanad Shehada and Khaled Sabah, from the village of Urif, members of Hamas’ Al-Qassam Brigades, were killed — one on the spot, by an armed settler, and the other by IDF forces, after a chase.

Settler violence

This led to a violent raid of Palestinian villages by radical settler youth, colloquially known as “Hilltop Youth”, primarily from the settlement of Yitzhar. They entered the villages of Turmus Ayya, Huwara and Luban al-Sharkiya, setting fire to fields, about 50 cars, and 30 houses. As the IDF moved in to restore law and order, clashes ensued with Palestinians, reportedly resulting in the death of a 27-year-old man in Turmus Ayya.

The next night, an IDF drone shot missiles at a car from which armed militants had opened fire at the Jalma border crossing, killing two militants from the PIJ and one from the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). IDF spokesman said they had been responsible for multiple shooting attacks.

Adding another layer to Mr. Netanyahu’s mound of worries, the focus of international media and governments was on the attacks on Palestinian property by the Hilltop Youth, not on the Palestinian violence. This is a new phenomenon that many accredit to the tacit approval of radicals in Mr. Netanyahu’s government, with fingers being pointed at Finance Minister, Betzazel Smotrich, who also holds responsibilities in the Ministry of Defense, and at Internal Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, who possesses a long record of radical activism from before he entered Parliament.

On Friday, a delegation of 18 EU ambassadors came to Turmus Ayya to express their solidarity. None of them visited the settlement of Eli, which they view as illegal. U.S. State Department Spokesman, Vedant Patel, also released a harsh condemnation, demanding Israel prosecute the rioters and compensate for damages to property.

On Sunday, Kan Reshet Bet public radio reported that U.S. administration officials announced they would reverse Trump era policy and restrict all scientific and technological collaborations over the 1967 Green Line, in the territories claimed by Israel. While this was a calculated blow aimed at Mr. Netanyahu’s government, it also painted roughly half a million Israeli settlers as violent extremists.

Mutual prosperity

This reporter met Rabbi Eliezer Melamed, the rabbi of the Har Bracha settlement, a settler leader, leading author of religious literature, and noted critic of settler violence. His settlement is across the valley from Yitzhar, where the most avid supporters of revenge attacks live.

He made it unequivocally clear that he opposes any infringement on Palestinian human rights, and believes in coexistence and mutual prosperity, despite his Palestinian neighbors’ radical Islamic beliefs. When asked about Yitzhar, he opposed their actions, but his rhetoric remained reserved.

But another senior figure in Har Bracha was furious and wanted to set the score straight on what settlers think of the Hilltop Youth. “They are enemies of the settlers. I risk my life daily riding on the highway via Huwara. I rode through there one hour before the Feb. 23 murder of Hillel and Yagel Yaniv, and again the following day.” 

“These young brats think they are great heroes going on their wanton vandalism. The only thing they accomplish is having the whole world portray us not as victims of terror, but as savages. They are an insult to everything we stand for: our religion, our personal sacrifices, and our prayers for peaceful coexistence despite everything we endure,” said the person.

Yeshaya Rosenman is the head of the South Asia Project at Sharaka NGO, Tel Aviv

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