Netanyahu condemns rioters after West Bank violence
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Israel’s prime minister has spoken out after weeks of settler violence in the occupied West Bank and condemned the actions of a “handful of rioters”.
Israeli strikes and fire have killed three Palestinians in Gaza. And Iran’s leadership now centres on military generals and clerics who are long entrenched in the ruling theocracy.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned criminal acts by a “handful of rioters” he said did injustice to the “law-abiding settler public”.
Radical Israeli settlers attacked members of a US television crew and a Palestinian family in the occupied West Bank, Israeli media reported on Saturday.
A man and a woman were reportedly injured in the incident. The Palestinian news agency WAFA reported that the incident took place in the village of Jalud, south of Nablus. NBC News reported that several journalists from the US broadcaster had been attacked.
The journalists had accompanied a family to their home, which they had been forced to leave some time ago. WAFA reported that the settlers had smashed the windscreen of the vehicle in which staff from the US broadcaster NBC News were travelling.
“”They jumped out, beat us, then jumped back in the car,” NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley said. He was hit twice in the arm and later treated at a nearby clinic.
The Israeli army stated that security forces were also deployed in Jalud “to prevent further unrest and restore order in the region”. It condemned “all forms of violence in the strongest possible terms”.
Netanyahu’s statement follows over two weeks of unrest in the town of Qusra, where settlers have surrounded several homes including one owned by a Palestinian American.
In an unusually sharp statement, US Ambassador Mike Huckabee referred to the settlers as “terrorists”, a word US officials usually reserve for Palestinian militants.
Earlier on Saturday, Israel’s military and police said Israeli rioters arrived in the Qusra area and violent clashes followed.
They said dozens of rioters barricaded themselves in a Palestinian home while residents were inside. They said the groups were separated and rioters’ vehicles were confiscated.
The Associated Press saw ambulances carry away injured Palestinians.
Qusra Mayor Abdel Azim Wadi told AP that two inhaled tear gas and two others were hurt when settlers threw stones. He said the house targeted was no longer under siege.
“The actions of these violent extremists are a disgrace and stand in complete contradiction to the values of the State of Israel,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
The statements did not mention any arrests.
Netanyahu’s government, the most ultranationalist and religious in Israel’s history, has presided over a surge of settlement construction in the West Bank. Most of the international community views settlements as illegal, and Israel has been seeing an erosion of support in the US.
Israeli strikes and fire in central Gaza killed four Palestinians and wounded others on Saturday, according to local health officials.
In Gaza City, two Palestinians were killed and another was wounded in an Israeli strike on a motorbike, according to officials at Shifa hospital. The Israeli military said it struck a “military operative,” without elaborating.
Tank fire killed a farmer in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah, according to officials at Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital, where the body was taken. A strike in southern Gaza killed one and wounded others, Nasser hospital said. The Israeli military did not immediately comment.
And the latest airstrike on the compound of Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital wounded three Palestinians, officials with Gaza’s health ministry said. Israel’s military said it “struck a Hamas commander who planned to execute terror attacks” adjacent to the compound.
The military statement accused the commander of hiding in the compound. It said medical authorities in Gaza were warned on Thursday that medical facilities should not be used for “terrorist purposes” and that Israeli forces would act on any threat if it continues. Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital did not comment on the strike.
A fragile ceasefire in Gaza has continued since October. While the heaviest fighting in Gaza has subsided, Israel’s military has killed at least 1313 Palestinians since then, according to Gaza’s health ministry.
The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by UN agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.
with dpa
AP