by Ali Sawafta
HOUWARA, March 7 (Reuters) – Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians overnight from Monday to Tuesday in the occupied West Bank village of Houwara, the scene of violent clashes already last week.
Houwara, a Palestinian village near a major road checkpoint, has become one of the main sites of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in recent months amid rising tensions in the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army and border police said they dispersed crowds in Houwara, with the army citing “a number of violent riots” in the village.
Videos circulating on social media show a group of youths dressed in black attacking a car before its driver managed to drive away.
“They were shooting at us with live ammunition. God helped us,” said Omar Khalifa, who had just been shopping at a supermarket and was in the car with his family when the attack took place.
“My wife was sitting in the back and she hugged our daughter to cover her up. We could have lost her, there was a real danger to our lives.”
Other footage shows Israeli soldiers dancing with settlers in the village on the Jewish holiday of Purim. We hear a voice say in Hebrew: “Houwara has been conquered, gentlemen”.
As well as stoking Palestinian anger, the clashes in Houwara have exposed political fault lines in Israel, already aggravated by a fierce battle over the overhaul of the justice system proposed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the country. a coalition of nationalist and religious parties.
“A group of hooligan settlers, in the middle of Purim celebration, went to attack innocent passers-by in the village of Houwara,” lamented the leader of the opposition Labor Party Merav Michaeli on Twitter.
“It is not about ‘marginal youth’ but about a mainstream, supported by important members of the current government,” she added. “Both are destroying Israel.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last night reiterated his calls for an easing of tensions between the two sides in the West Bank, where Israeli forces have killed more than 65 Palestinians, including militant fighters and civilians, this year.
During the same period, Palestinians killed 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian in a series of individual attacks that appear uncoordinated. (Report by Ali Sawafta and Dan Williams, Blandine Hénault for the French version, edited by Matthieu Protard)
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