US urges Israel to hold settlers accountable for 'vigilante violence'
The State Department condemned the recent shootings of Israelis as well as the deadly rampage carried out by Jewish settlers in the West Bank.
WASHINGTON — The State Department on Monday urged Israel to hold accountable the scores of settlers who indiscriminately torched Palestinian property in retaliation for the shooting deaths of two Israelis over the weekend.
Less than a month after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel and the Palestinian territories to press for calm, the West Bank is experiencing another uptick in violence.
The latest tensions were triggered Sunday by a suspected Palestinian gunman’s killing of two Israeli brothers in a drive-by shooting in the town of Huwara, a Palestinian town south of Nablus in the West Bank. The brothers, Hillel Menachem Yaniv and Yagel Yaakov Yaniv, were from the nearby settlement of Har Bracha.
Hours after the shooting, Israeli settlers carried out a deadly rampage in Huwara and other nearby towns. The settlers reportedly set fire to dozens of Palestinian homes, buildings and cars in riots that killed a Palestinian man identified as 37-year-old Samih al-Aqtash. The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 300 others were injured in the rampage, many from tear gas fired by Israeli Border Police.
