After deadly shooting, extremist settlers accused of assaulting Palestinians
Group allegedly smashed property in village near Nablus, broke into a home and beat a resident after killing of yeshiva student
A group of extremist Israeli settlers assaulted Palestinians and vandalized property in a West Bank village near Nablus Thursday overnight, Palestinian media reported Friday, hours after a settler was killed and two others were injured in a shooting attack.
The reports said dozens of cars were damaged in Qaryut, south of Nablus, and three people were wounded. Assailants broke into the home of one family, smashed furniture and beat one of its inhabitants, Wael Moqbel.
Photos shared on social media showed Moqbel in hospital with intense swelling in his face.
Police said they had received reports of the attack and were investigating the matter.
It seemed likely that the alleged assault was a so-called “price tag” attack following the deadly shooting earlier. Perpetrators claim such attacks are retaliation for Palestinian violence or government policies seen as hostile to the settler movement.
Recent days have seen a national discussion over settler violence, after Public Security Minister Omer Barlev announced that he had discussed the issue with a visiting American diplomat earlier this week, leading the coalition’s right-wing flank to censure him and defend the settler movement.
????️ إصابة مواطن فلسطيني وزوجته في اعتداء للمستوطنين على منزلين وثلاث مركبات في بلدة قريوت جنوبي #نابلس pic.twitter.com/K9LAte3xnA
— قناة الأقصى الفضائية (@SerajSat) December 17, 2021
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told an American periodical earlier this month that extremist violence is “a stain on Israel.”
The past year has seen a substantial increase in violent attacks by Israeli extremists against Palestinians.
The fatality from Thursday’s terror shooting was named as Yehudah Dimentman, 25, a father of one from the West Bank settlement of Shavei Shomron. He was a student at the yeshiva, or religious school, in the Homesh outpost in the West Bank, near where the attack took place.
Dimentman and two others were fired on while driving a car as they left Homesh on Thursday night. A military official said the car had been ambushed from the side of the road. The other two passengers sustained light injuries in the attack from broken glass.
Security forces were searching Friday for the perpetrators.
