JERUSALEM: Dozens of masked Israeli settlers launched violent attacks on two Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, torching vehicles, farmland, and property before clashing with Israeli soldiers dispatched to stop the rampage, according to Israeli and Palestinian officials.
Israeli police confirmed that four Israelis were arrested for what they described as “extremist violence,” while the military reported four Palestinians wounded in the assaults. Both Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency said investigations were underway. Videos circulating online showed trucks and a building engulfed in flames as residents fled.
The incident marks the latest in a wave of settler violence that has surged since the Gaza war erupted two years ago, with recent attacks escalating during the annual olive harvest season.
Earlier in the day, tens of thousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for the funeral of Lt. Hadar Goldin, an Israeli soldier whose remains were held in Gaza for 11 years. Hamas returned his body on Sunday as part of the U.S.-brokered ceasefire that began last month.
According to the U.N. humanitarian office, October saw more than 260 settler attacks on Palestinians — the highest monthly figure since records began in 2006. Human rights groups accuse Israeli authorities of failing to curb such violence, noting that the government includes several ministers aligned with the settler movement.
On Tuesday, the Israeli army said troops responded to the settler assault in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf, where settlers later damaged a military vehicle and attacked soldiers. Palestinian official Muayyad Shaaban, head of the Commission against the Wall and Settlements, said settlers set fire to four dairy trucks, farmland, tin shacks, and Bedouin tents, calling the attacks part of a broader effort to displace Palestinians.
Shaaban urged international sanctions on groups supporting what he described as “the colonial settlement terrorism project.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, meeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday, condemned the violence, warning that “settler attacks and accelerated settlement projects are reaching new heights, threatening West Bank stability.”
Meanwhile, in Gaza, displaced Palestinians continue to struggle with food shortages despite the ongoing ceasefire. Many depend entirely on charity kitchens, where children and adults queue for a single daily meal. “The rockets stopped, but rising prices and poverty are now the hardest weapons against us,” said Mohamed al-Naqlah, a displaced resident of Nuseirat camp.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said 69,182 Palestinians have been killed since the start of the conflict, with over half reported to be women and children.
In related news, Israeli Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer, a close confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, resigned on Tuesday, citing family reasons after three years in office. As strategic affairs minister, Dermer had served as Israel’s key envoy to Washington during ceasefire negotiations and discussions on Iran’s nuclear program.
Goldin, killed in the 2014 Gaza war, became a national symbol in Israel. His funeral drew massive crowds, offering long-awaited closure for his family after years of campaigning for his remains’ return. Israel’s military said it dismantled the tunnel where Goldin’s body was found, bringing to an end one of the country’s most enduring wartime tragedies.
