From: BBC August 16, 2024
A Palestinian man was shot dead as dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a village in the north of the occupied West Bank overnight, setting fire to houses and cars, Palestinian officials say.

The settlers - some wearing masks - also threw rocks and Molotov cocktails in the village of Jit, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, adding that one was arrested.

The Palestinian health ministry said Rashid Sedda, 22, was killed by gunfire from the settlers and another man was seriously wounded in what it condemned as an act of “organised state terrorism”. The IDF said it was looking into the reports of a fatality.

It is the latest in the series of attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where there has been a spike in violence since Hamas’s deadly attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing war in Gaza.

Israel has built about 160 settlements housing some 700,000 Jews since it occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem - land the Palestinians want as part of a future state - in the 1967 Middle East war.

The vast majority of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Token rare condemnation from Israel....
Israel’s prime minister said he viewed the incident with “utmost severity”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement that he took “seriously the riots that took place this evening" and promised that “those responsible for any criminal act will be caught and prosecuted".

President Isaac Herzog wrote in a post on X: "This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding community of settlers and the settlement as a whole and in the name and status of Israel in the world during a particularly sensitive and difficult period.