Israeli settlers attack army in West Bank village
A group of settlers attacked Israeli military forces on Friday night at an outpost near Kafr Malik, northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
According to Israeli media reports, dozens of settlers defied a military order to leave a closed military zone. In response, the military arrested six individuals, prompting a confrontation between the settlers and security forces.
A military source told Haaretz that settlers threw stones at, beat and choked the soldiers, and punctured the tyres of their military vehicles.
"Israeli civilians who entered a closed military zone, near Kafr Malik, attacked the force with severe violence," the military said in a statement.
Settlers said that a 14-year-old boy was shot with live ammunition during the incident and taken to the hospital with a shoulder injury.
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However, according to the military, the boy was reportedly wounded during another confrontation between the army and settlers in the area.
"In another area in the sector, stones were thrown at a military vehicle near the confrontation site by masked men from an ambush. The force responded with warning shots of three bullets," the army said.
'Firing at Jews is forbidden'
Haaretz reported that the soldiers who opened fire on the masked individuals thought they were Palestinians, prompting them to shoot.
The incident led to harsh criticism from settler leaders in the Knesset, Israel's parliament, who spoke out against the use of live ammunition against Jews.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote on X account that such confrontations must not take place.
Smotrich, who is also responsible for the Civil Administration in the occupied West Bank, said the incident must be investigated, but one thing is clear: "An IDF's live fire against Jews is a forbidden and dangerous crossing of a red line that justifies in-depth investigation and individual conclusions.
"The IDF and the settlers are one. Anyone who raises his hand against IDF fighters is fighting against the settlements, not for it. Still, firing live ammunition at Jews is forbidden and dangerous," added Smotrich, who said in the past: "A terrorist who throws a stone is worthy of death. Period."
A member of Smotrich's Religious Zionism party, lawmaker Zvi Succot, wrote on X: "You don't shoot at Jews, you don't carry out evictions on Friday night, and certainly not with use of weapons."
Knesset member Limor Sonn Har Melech, of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir's Jewish Power party, wrote on X that there seemed to be confusion within the Israeli army.
"The sight of IDF soldiers pointing weapons at Jews and the news that a 14-year-old boy hospitalised… raises serious questions about the perception of 'who is the enemy' in the Central Command," wrote Son Har Melech.
Attacks on Palestinians
Over the past week, settlers and the army carried out two attacks on Kafr Malik.
On Wednesday, 50 settlers, accompanied by military forces, attacked the village. During the violent assault, settlers set fire to homes and vehicles, while Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians: Murshid Hamayel, Muhammad al-Naji and Lutfi Sabri. Seven other Palestinians were wounded.
Earlier in the week, on Monday, the Israeli army shot and killed 13-year-old Ammar Hamayel as he was walking with a friend on the outskirts of the village.
The commander of the military unit assaulted on Friday told Haaretz that the settlers involved were the same armed individuals responsible for the arson attack in Kafr Malik.
"They have brought us to a situation where 90 percent of our time we are busy preventing hilltop youths from arson places," the commander said, adding that the settlers "threatened that we would not get out of there alive".
"We saw them choking one of the soldiers, I myself got punched, one of the vehicles had stones thrown at it, they punctured the vehicle's tyres."
'Where were you?'
This time, Israeli politicians condemned the settlers' attack on the army.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel "is a state of law, and no one must take the law into their own hands".
Defence Minister Israel Katz said, "Israel will not allow harm to IDF soldiers who are bravely fighting against Palestinian terror in Judea and Samaria [the Israeli term for the occupied West Bank], and defending the security of the settlers day and night."
Meanwhile, Knesset member Gilad Kariv pointed out the hypocrisy of the condemnation by members of both the government and the opposition in a post on X.
"Anyone who is not shocked by violent attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinians will end up being shocked by their severe violence against soldiers," Kariv wrote.
"The extremist settlers are not weeds. They are the vanguard of the decisive plan of Smotrich, [Settlements Minister Orit] Strook and Ben Gvir. If we won't take control over the Jewish terrorism, it will eventually take over us and overwhelm us."
The left-wing organisation Looking the Occupation in the Eye also criticised the double standards of liberal opposition members who condemned the attack.
"Where were you when soldiers are cooperating, abusing on a daily basis, standing by or participating in settler terror?" the organisation wrote on its X account.
"Where were you when weapons were directed at unarmed civilians in villages in the West Bank, when for years farmers are prevented from going out to the fields, to the vineyards? Where are you?"
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