White House leads international outrage over settler rampage, calls for accountability

The White House cried foul over an Israeli settler rampage in the West Bank which left one Palestinian dead late Thursday, declaring that the perpetrators must be held accountable.

Condemnation also poured in from Europe, including the visiting foreign ministers of Britain and France, and elsewhere Friday as the international community recoiled over the riot, in which some 50 masked settlers descended on a Palestinian village near Nablus setting buildings and cars alight and attacking residents.

In a statement to The Times of Israel on Thursday night, a spokesperson for the National Security Council said that “attacks by violent settlers against Palestinian civilians in the West Bank are unacceptable and must stop.”

“Israeli authorities must take measures to protect all communities from harm. This includes intervening to stop such violence and holding all perpetrators of such violence to account,” continued the statement.

The IDF announced on Friday that it managed to detain one suspect in connection to the riot. However, Hebrew media reports later suggested that the suspect’s arrest was unrelated to the riot and that he had since been released.

US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew also condemned the incident, posting on X: “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.”

Visiting Israel for high-level meetings related to regional tensions surrounding the war in Gaza and hostilities with Hezbollah and Iran Friday, UK Foreign Minister David Lammy and French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne both spoke out against the violent spree in the village of Jit.

The rampage saw dozens of settlers hurl stones and Molotov cocktails, torching at least four homes and six vehicles in the village, located just west of Nablus. More than 100 assailants were involved, according to an Israeli security official.

The Palestinian Authority health ministry said a 23-year-old Palestinian, named Rasheed Seda, was killed and another Palestinian civilian was critically wounded by the “settlers’ bullets.” Israeli security sources said it was unclear who had shot him.

“The scenes overnight, of the burning and the torching of buildings, of the Molotov cocktails thrown at cars, of the widespread rampage and chasing of people from their homes, is abhorrent, and I condemn it in the strongest of terms,” Lammy said following a meeting with Israeli counterpart Israel Katz.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry also condemned the rioting, calling it”unacceptable.”

“Palestinians have a right to live in safety. Israel has an obligation to protect Palestinians in the West Bank,” Berlin said on X.

The EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Friday that the riot was “unacceptable” and that he would propose sanctions against Israeli government “enablers” of settler violence, seemingly referring to far-right ministers who have sought to thwart attempts to crack down on West Bank extremists.

“The Israeli government must stop these unacceptable actions immediately,” Borrell posted on X, vowing to “table a proposal for EU sanctions against violent settlers’ enablers, including some Israeli government’s members.”

Such a move would require the approval of all 27 EU member states.

A spokesperson for the UN’s human rights office also suggested that Israeli officials shared some responsibility for the “horrific” attack and other violence in the West Bank.

“There are reports of Israeli security forces standing by as attacks take place,” Ravina Shamdasani told a press briefing. “What is striking and important to remember is that yesterday’s killing in Jit is not an isolated attack, and it is the direct consequence of Israel’s policy of settlement in the West Bank.”

She added that prosecutions of violent settlers or soldiers had been exceedingly rare.

“By and large, we are seeing impunity. There have been some, very few, investigations — but even in those cases, most of the times, these do not conclude with justice for the victims and for the perpetrators,” she said.

The Palestinian Authority’s foreign ministry on Friday described the attack on Jit as “organized state terrorism.”

The statement echoed words from Naser Seda, the head of the Jit local council, who also referred to the riot as “terrorism” on Friday, in remarks quoted by the Ynet news site.

The local official, who is also a relative of the Palestinian man slain in the incident, estimated that about 100 rioters came to the village Thursday night.

“Four cars and four houses were set on fire,” he said. “We woke up to the smell of flames, children were scared.”

כך נראה הטרור היהודי בכפר ג'ית: רעולי פנים מציתים רכב ותוקפים בית על יושביו ונמלטים.
על פי הפלסטינים, הרוג אחד מאש חיה, מספר פצועים ונזק רב שנגרם
למחבלים האלה בתיעוד יש נציגים בכנסת ובממשלה. מי שנתן להם לגיטימציה, שלא יגלגל עיניים הלילה. pic.twitter.com/Xsu4RtwnS7

— Josh Breiner (@JoshBreiner) August 15, 2024

“If our young people hadn’t gone out to try to repel the settlers, it could have been a much greater disaster,” Seda said, adding that Rasheed “went out to try to fight back so they wouldn’t burn his house, and he was shot.” The local official added, “It’s so sad. It’s very easy to kill Palestinians today.”

Seda said that Jit residents have not had any issues with the neighboring settlement of Kedumim, and pointed his finger at the Gilad and Yizhar farm outposts, whose residents deliberately try to disturb the lives of those in Jit, he said.

Yossi Dagan, the head of the Samaria Regional Council, representing Israeli settlements in the northern part of the West Bank, said the extremists who rampaged through Jit on Thursday were mostly not settlers from his area.

“We know that this is a WhatsApp group of fringe, violent youth, most of whom are not even from Samaria. I despise them like most of the country,” he told Kan radio on Friday.

“I am in constant contact with the police, the IDF and with the security establishment, and also with residents who called yesterday and requested I talk with the police because they felt torn apart by this violence,” he said.

“Residents of Samaria despise them. These are bored people with no connection to the youth that wake at 5 a.m. to herd sheep and protect the country,” he continued, warning rioters that they are not wanted in his area.

Meanwhile, Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum condemned the riot.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Thursday that he viewed the incident “with severity,” though he appeared to frame the actions as a misguided attempt to fight terror, rather than as terrorism itself, saying: “Those who fight terrorism are only the IDF and security forces, not anyone else.”

President Isaac Herzog issued a statement saying he “strongly condemns” the riot, saying it was “not our way and certainly not the way of Torah and Judaism” and calling for swift action to “bring the lawbreakers to justice,” and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant denounced the “handful of extremists” for rampaging in Jit “while our soldiers are fighting on various fronts to defend the State of Israel.”

Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, blamed the coalition for what happened, writing on X: “Netanyahu brought the representatives of the rioters in Kfar Jit to the Knesset and appointed them to be ministers. Therefore, it is not an extreme minority or a small problem, but rather a violent group that receives enormous government support.”

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 4,850 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 1,960 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 630 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

There have also been several cases of settlers killing Palestinians in the past 10 months, some of which are still under investigation.

During the same period, 26 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another five members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

Agencies contributed to this report.