IDF says dozens of settler extremists involved in overnight West Bank riots, troops also attacked

An initial IDF investigation into a settler attack on two West Bank Palestinian villages last night has found that dozens of assailants were involved, and troops also came under attack.

The probe found that “dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked, arrived at night al-Funduq area… set fire to property and caused damage.”

The IDF says that upon receiving the report, soldiers and police officers were dispatched to the scene.

The assailants involved in the attack on al-Funduq and the adjacent village of Jinsafut “threw stones and attacked the security forces,” the army says.

The head of the IDF Central Command, Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, says in a statement, “Any violent riot harms security and the IDF will not allow it.”

The IDF does not mention an incident that occurred amid the settler attack, in which a police officer opened fire on two settlers, badly wounding them.

The Justice Ministry’s Department of Internal Police Investigations and the IDF Military Police are jointly investigating the incident.

The police officer reportedly told interrogators that the two settlers were masked, brandishing stones, and were threatening him and other forces.

“They sprayed me with pepper spray, I was afraid they would lynch us and I fired a few shots in the air,” he is cited as saying according to Haaretz.

Palestinians say 21 people were wounded in the attacks.