Israeli settlers raid Huwara, injuries reported among Palestinians

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Some six Palestinians, five of whom are from the same family, including children, were injured during illegal Israeli settlers' raid on Huwara, southern Nablus, Al Mayadeen correspondent reported on Monday.

مستوطنون متوحشون وبدعم من الجنود الإسرائيليين هاجموا الليلة #حوارة كجزء من العيد اليهودي بوريم ، واعتدوا على الفلسطينيين ورشقوا سياراتهم بالحجارة مما أدى لإصابة 4 فلسطينيين بجراح طفيفة، بعد ذلك رقص المستوطنون وجنود الجيش الاسرائيلي معاً pic.twitter.com/TxvFhF2OXK

— سعيد بشارات Saaed Bsharat (@saaed_bsharat) March 6, 2023

Several Palestinians sustained injuries due to illegal Israeli settlers assaulting them and throwing stones at them in Huwara, an Al Mayadeen correspondent reported. Moreover, the settlers hurled stones at Palestinians' vehicles, destroying their property, while performing provocative dances in the town that was burnt down a week ago.

A Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the northern occupied West Bank, Ghassan Douglas, said six citizens, including children, were injured due to settlers hurling stones at them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported 31 Palestinians have been injured as a result of raids by settlers and the Israeli occupation forces in Huwara, southern Nablus.

One of the Palestinians sustained injuries to the head, and they were all subsequently taken to a hospital in Nablus, while a settler opened fire at a vehicle in the town, damaging it, without causing any casualties.

Confrontations broke out between Palestinians and the Israeli occupation forces as the latter was providing protection to the illegal Israeli settlers, which saw several Palestinians sustaining various injuries after the IOF used tear gas against them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported late February that illegal Israeli settlers launched raids in Huwara, Nablus, violently assaulting Palestinians while the Israeli occupation forces were preventing ambulance crews from making it to the scene.

The injuries were sustained as the Israeli occupation forces were providing protection for the illegal settlers while the latter were vandalizing the property of Palestinians, including arson, as Israelis were setting fire to Palestinian cars and homes.

Reportedly, as the IOF was preventing ambulance crews from accessing the scenes, the settlers were attacking the emergency vehicles.

The settlers are setting fire to Palestinians' property in Huwara, so far burning down several homes and cars, an Al Maydeen correspondent said.

According to Palestinian sources, more than 150 Palestinians were injured in the attacks of the occupation forces and settlers, and 52 Palestinian homes and 130 Palestinian cars were burned. A civil defense vehicle was also destroyed.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of Sameh Hamdallah Aqtash (37 years old), who succumbed to severe wounds sustained by live bullets from the occupation forces and settlers' attack on the village of Za'tara near Nablus.

Read next: Israeli Knesset members satisfied with Huwara burning down

Furthermore, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, one of the most senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, called on "Isreal" to "wipe out" the Palestinian village of Huwara in the occupied West Bank.

The horrific remarks came days after an illegal Israeli settlers' rampage, which left one Palestinian murdered and Palestinian cars, homes, and businesses burnt to the ground. The rampage followed a week of brutal aggression against Palestinians in Nablus, in which 11 were killed in an Israeli occupation forces (IOF) raid.

Smotrich's remarks are not shocking; they are a manifestation of what daily life looks like for Palestinians under the Israeli occupation. Knesset members from the Otzma Yehudit party described the violent attacks carried out by Israeli settlers in Huwara in the occupied West Bank, occupied Palestine, as "legitimate".

"Huwara is closed-down and burnt down, and this is what I want to see," said Zvi Vogel, head of the National Security Committee in the Knesset. "Only this way will we establish deterrence."

"Deterrence that has not existed since Operation Defensive Shield (the invasion of the West Bank in 2002) has been established," Vogel added, describing the damage done by the settlers in Huwara as "good" and saying that they deserved "a lot of admiration."