Fearing that Israeli settlers would retaliate for the deaths of two brothers killed by a Palestinian gunman in nearby Hawara, Zaatara residents prepared for retaliatory violence by closing the large gate at the entrance to the small Palestinian village of Zaatara, in the northern occupied West Bank, which is rarely closed.

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Edited by| Tony Wild

Middle East section -  CJ journalist

Huwara - West Bank - February 27, 2023

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It didn’t take long for the settlers to arrive. Villagers said that by dusk, about 100 armed Israelis, accompanied by a dozen Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldiers, had massed on the road outside the village entrance, and some began shooting.

Sameh Aqtash, a 37-year-old blacksmith who had just returned from volunteering after the earthquake in Turkey, was shot in the stomach. Because the army would not clear the road for an ambulance to reach him, he bled to death, Aqtash’s nephew Fadi said.

Aqtash was somehow the only fatality during an unprecedented hours-long settler rampage in the vicinity of Huwara overnight: more than 350 Palestinians were injured, while dozens of homes and businesses and hundreds of cars were set alight, according to rights groups and Palestinian officials. On Monday morning, a rightwing Israeli commentator, appalled by the reported inaction of the IDF, likened the violence to “Kristallnacht in Huwara”.

“Of course, there are lots of settlers and army around here and sometimes that is difficult but they have never come to Za’atara before like this,” Fadi Aqtash said, putting his arm around one of his uncle’s five children outside the village mourning tent. Sporadic gunfire could be heard in the distance. “We are very worried about what will happen now,” the 29-year-old added.

Incidents of settler violence across the West Bank happen every day, and have steadily increased over the past few years: many of the 700,000 or so Israelis living in the territory and East Jerusalem are motivated by what they see as a mission to restore the historical land of Israel to the Jewish people.

Shootings, knife attacks, burning crops, and the theft of land and livestock are supposed to make a life for Palestinians so unbearable they leave. On many occasions, the Israeli army has been documented failing to stem the violence, or even joining in.

But no one in the Huwara area on could recall such an intense and widespread episode, which Palestinians and Israelis fear could trigger more attacks on both sides or a return to full-blown conflict.

Stability in the region has arguably already broken down. Last year was the bloodiest on record in Israel and the West Bank since the second intifada, or Palestinian uprising, of the 2000s. About 63 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed so far in 2023, mostly in IDF raids

On Sunday, Israel and Palestinian security officials met in Jordan for the first high-level talks in years aimed at calming tensions before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins in a few weeks’ time and is often a catalyst for escalation. It does not seem likely, however, that the situation on the ground will improve.

At the same time, Israeli security forces appeared to be unprepared or unwilling to deal with the scale of the settler violence in Huwara on Sunday, despite the fact that settler leaders made public calls for a march to “wipe out” Huwara in revenge for the deaths of the two brothers.

The Israeli military estimated that between 300 and 400 people took part in the rampage, although only 10 arrests have been made, and anonymous security officials told Israeli media that preparations made by the IDF’s central command were “faulty”.

Several elements of Israel’s new far-right administration are ardent supporters of the settler movement, who have called for the full annexation of the West Bank, relaxing the rules of engagement for Israel’s police and soldiers, and harsher punishments for Palestinians.

Their plans to neuter Israel’s supreme court have also prompted the biggest political crisis in the country’s history, bringing hundreds of thousands of Israelis to the street in protest against moves they say will erode democratic norms.

While the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, issued a video statement on Sunday night calling on people not to “take the law into their own hands”, members of his coalition fanned the flames, telling the IDF to show “no mercy”.

By Monday, they had melted away, and the streets of Huwara were deserted except for soldiers and armored patrol vehicles that roared up and down the main road. At Tapuach junction, south of the village, settlers carrying pistols and automatic rifles mingled with IDF units as they waited to march on Huwara again in the evening as part of the funeral procession for the killed brothers. Meanwhile, in a different part of the West Bank, reports emerged of another shooting attack that critically wounded an Israeli.

Inspecting the damage at his workplace in the middle of Huwara, Sakir, a 22-year-old mechanic, said that he thought the Israeli settlers living in the area had grown bolder since the new Israeli government entered office in December. “They know they can do whatever they like,” he said.