Palestinians were killed when Israeli settlers burned a West Bank village

A Palestinian man was shot dead when dozens of Israeli settlers attacked a town in the northern West Bank that was under siege overnight, burning houses and cars, Palestinian officials said.

The settlers – some wearing masks – also threw stones and Molotov cocktails in the village of Jit, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said, adding that one person had been arrested.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health said Rashid Sedda, 22, was killed by settlers and another man was seriously wounded in what it condemned as an act of “organized state terrorism”. The IDF said it was looking into reports of casualties.

The prime minister of Israel said that he was watching this incident “with great strength”.

It is the latest in a series of brutal attacks on Palestinian villages in the West Bank, where violence has escalated since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 and the subsequent war in Gaza.

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

Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Pictures posted on social media show cars and houses in flames following the tragic incident in Jit on Thursday night.

While assessing the damage at his home on Friday morning, Ibrahim al-Seda told the BBC that he was sitting outside his home with relatives after the sunset Maghrib prayer when he heard the crash.

“We looked and saw seven, eight, maybe 10 people. Two cars were burnt,” he said. “My children ran outside, we grabbed the hose to put out the fire in the cars. But the water was not enough; we could not extinguish the flame. Then they threw stones upwards.”

“The people of this town came to protect us and our neighbors. Then more settlers arrived, this time armed. They started shooting.”

He continued: “The young men who were protecting us on top of the wall threw stones to protect themselves. We were few. There were probably about 100 residents at the end. People on the ground had to flee because they could not withstand the gunfire.

“Settlers controlled this area. They set two other cars on fire and prevented us from going outside because they would shoot anyone who tried.”

Mr Seda said that Israeli soldiers arrived “about an hour later” and that they fired in the air but “did not intervene much at that time to stop what was happening”.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its doctors treated a Palestinian citizen who was shot in the chest and rushed him to Rafida public hospital in the nearby city of Nablus, where his condition was described as critical, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Rashid Sedda’s body was taken there.

In a statement, the IDF said its soldiers and Border Police were dispatched to the village “within minutes” of receiving reports of violence. They fired in the air to disperse the crowds and “clear them away.”[d] citizens of Israel,” it added. One person was arrested and handed over to the police for questioning, it added.

The IDF said it had opened an investigation in cooperation with the domestic security service Shin Bet and the police following what it called “this terrible incident”.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that it took the “riots that took place this evening” very seriously and promised that “those involved in any criminal act will be caught and prosecuted”.

President Isaac Herzog wrote on the X website: “This is an extreme minority that harms the law-abiding community of settlers and all settlements and the name and status of Israel in the world at a critical and difficult time.

The US, Israel’s main ally, also condemned the attack, saying such attacks on Palestinian civilians were “unacceptable and must stop”.

“The Israeli authorities must take measures to protect all communities from harm, this includes intervening to stop such violence, and hold accountable all perpetrators of such violence,” said a spokesman for the National Security Council.

Palestinian analyst and former Palestinian Authority spokesperson Nour Odeh told the BBC that such attacks happen “every day”.

“These sentences [by Israeli leaders] are considered to make the Palestinian community, because the record of the song [that] the investigation is going nowhere, no one is being prosecuted, no one will be held accountable, and these immigrants can count on the full support of members of the government to protect them.”

The UN said on Wednesday it had recorded nearly 1,250 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7.. About 120 of those attacks resulted in the death or injury of people, while 1,000 resulted in property damage.

It also said 594 Palestinians – members of armed groups, attackers and civilians – were killed in incidents related to unrest in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the same period. At least 577 were killed by Israeli soldiers and 10 by civilians, it added.

Fifteen Israelis, including nine security personnel and five settlers, were also killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, and another 10 Israelis were killed in Israeli attacks by Palestinians from the West Bank, according to the UN.