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The Israeli settlers who attacked Hassan Arman’s village of Jit in the occupied West Bank had a simple purpose, he said: “Burn, kill or destroy” — all of which happened that night.
Late Thursday, dozens of settlers ransacked the northern village, burning homes and cars, culminating in the shooting of a young Palestinian man as villagers hid in fear.
As Arman opened the charred door of his car, which was burnt out in the attack, he said he had “never seen anything like this” in Gite.
Everything inside melted away, leaving only a twisted metal skeleton.
He said that when the Jewish settlers arrived at his home they were “in uniform, carrying knives, machine guns and silencers.”
A few houses away, Muawiyah al-Sada struggled to speak as he stood amid the charred remains of his living room, where the sofa cushions and fabric had been burned away, leaving only its charred wooden frame.
“After they burned down that house, they came to this one, broke the windows and threw Molotov cocktails – Molotov cocktails – inside,” he told AFP, shards of window glass crunching under the weight of his boots.
Sadar and his neighbors then heard gunfire, which they later learned resulted in the death of 23-year-old Rashid Sadar, who was reportedly shot in the back.
After that, “there was a brief lull, and then the army entered (the village).”
Street mourners
Crowds gathered for the funeral on Friday, with mourners wrapping the young man’s body in a Palestinian flag and carrying it aloft through the streets.
“A bullet came out from behind him and from the other side and he was martyred,” his uncle Mohanad Sadar told AFP at the funeral.
He added: “It was not the army that was shooting, it was the settlers.”
CCTV footage released by a resident showed masked men wearing black hoodies emerging from a field, setting a car on fire and breaking into a house, before attacking a villager when he tried to chase them away.
The Israeli military said it had dispersed the settlers from Git and detained an Israeli civilian.
The Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank from Ramallah, called the attack “organized state terrorism.”
Israel’s president and prime minister both condemned the attack, which drew worldwide condemnation.
The White House, Germany and France all called the attack “unacceptable”, Britain’s foreign secretary called it “abhorrent” and the United Nations called it “horrific”.
The European Union’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said he would propose sanctions against the Israeli government if it supports settler violence.
The incident comes amid a tense period in the region as negotiators try to reach a ceasefire in the Gaza war to quell threats from Iran and its proxies to attack Israel.
“Any action that could jeopardize the negotiation process for a ceasefire agreement is unacceptable,” French Foreign Minister Stephane Seyonna said in Jerusalem.
The West Bank is a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated from the Gaza Strip by Israeli territory, where violence surged during the Gaza War.
Since the war began on October 7, Israel has also established a record number of settlements in the occupied territories, in violation of international law.
Since then, at least 633 Palestinians have been killed in violent clashes with settlers or Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Authority.
According to official Israeli data, at least 18 Israelis, including soldiers, were killed in the Palestinian attacks.
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