US envoy ‘appalled’ by Israeli settler rampage in West Bank village

Washington (Quds News Network)- US ambassador to Israel Jack Lew has slammed Israeli settler violence against the Palestinian village of Jit, east of Qalqilya city in the occupied West Bank on Thursday evening.

“I am appalled by yesterday’s violent attack by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank. These attacks must stop and the criminals be held to account,” he said on X.

Local sources reported that dozens of masked Israeli settlers, some armed, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails as they stormed the Palestinian village, setting fire to several cars and destroying property. The settlers also attacked the Huwwara town.

The Israeli military claimed they are investigating two separate attacks in the occupied West Bank by armed Israeli settlers. The first was in the village of Jit and the second in the town of Huwwara.

The Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed that a 23-year-old Palestinian man – identified as Mahmoud Abdel Qader Sadda – was killed in the settler violence and another Palestinian suffered critical gunshot wounds to the chest. Around a dozen people were also injured in the attack.

Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank is not new. However, the violence has only spiked since the beginning of Israel’s genocide war on Gaza 10 months ago.

Between October 7 and August 12 this year, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) recorded some 1,250 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in at least 120 deaths, and 1,000 incidents of property damage.

The Israeli anti-settlement group, Peace Now, called the latest attacks “pure settler terrorism – supported by the state, sponsored by our government”.

It said that “contrary to the publication in the news, this is not a nationalist event but a terrorist attack”.

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