Settler pogrom in West Bank village

Dozens of Israeli settlers, many of them masked, attacked the Palestinian village of Jit, outside the West Bank town of Nablus, on the night of Aug. 15, hurling stones and Molotov cocktails. The group of over 100 assailants put at least four houses and six vehicles to the torch, and apparently killed one resident. The Palestinian Authority health ministry said Rashid Sedda, 22, was killed by gunfire from the settlers and another resident was seriously wounded in what it called an act of "organized state terrorism."

The attack won a rare rebuke from Israeli authorities. The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement: "The IDF condemns events of this type and the rioters, who harm security, law and order, and divert the IDF and the security forces from their main mission of thwarting terrorism and protecting the security of the residents."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said that he intends to treat the incident "with severity," but framed the attack as a misguided attempt to fight terror, rather than as terrorism itself, saying: "Those who fight terrorism are only the IDF and security forces, not anyone else." (ToI, BBC News)

Israeli security forces have been accused repeatedly of collaborating with settler violence on the West Bank. After a spate of such attacks in April, Amnesty International decried a "state-backed deadly rampage by Israeli settlers," saying that "the Israeli military either joined in the attacks or stood by, failing to prevent the violence" at several locations. 

An Aug. 14 update from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) notes that violence agianst Palestinians on the West Bank at the hands of both settlers and security forces has dramatically increased since the current Gaza war began last October. The number of Palestinian children killed by live ammunition fired by Israeli forces has almost tripled since Oct. 7 compared with the preceding 10 months (115 compared to 39).

The number of killings and arrests of Palestinians on the West Bank has skyrocketed since Oct. 7.

Israel meanwhile faces a a genocide case before the International Court of Justice over its actions in Gaza.