Jewish extremists led, on Sunday, a punitive expedition in the city of Hawara, after a Palestinian killed two inhabitants of a colony.
by Louis Imbert (Jerusalem, correspondent)
Rarely Israeli settlers had perpetrated such violence. With impunity, at least dozens of them led, on Sunday, February 26, in the evening, for several hours, a punitive expedition against the city of Hawara and against neighboring villages, in the north of the West Bank. Armed for some, they set fire to cars, shops and dwellings at the northern entrance to the city, in retaliation after the death of two settlers, killed during the day.
According to the Palestinian health authorities, a resident of the neighboring village of Zaatara was killed. Three residents of Hawara were injured by stone jets and iron bar strokes, according to Sawfat Ozril, member of the municipal council. A hundred inhabitants were neat after inhaling tear gas.
These reprisals took place under the gaze of an nearby army base. His inability to prevent them signals a dangerous collapse of the chain of command. They also discredit “disconception” measures announced a few hours earlier by the main Israeli security officials and the Palestinian Authority. Washington welcomed them to have gathered them in Akaba in a rare summit, led under the patronage of Jordan and Egypt. 2>
Powder
The first target of the colonists, Hawara, is a small shopping center, not very politicized. Between these tight hills, Route 60, “the highway of the colonies”, cannot bypass the Palestinian building. Rolling from the south and Jerusalem, the colonists have no choice but to cross it to reach their locations in the north of the West Bank. Sunday, a Palestinian opened fire on one of these cars, at close range, killing two brothers aged 20 and 22.
Such an attack was fear for a long time. For over a year, the Israeli army has helped make Hawara a powder maker. She took part in a campaign launched by settlers to remove any Palestinian flag along the road. It has protected regular settlers from settlers against traders, which remained largely impunted. The soldiers regularly deploy in the city, located south of a highly militarized intersection, which closes access to the great Palestinian city of Nablus.
On Sunday, soldiers escorted elderly Palestinian away from the flames. But these images, broadcast by the army, cannot hide the fact that it let the colonists mobilize, then descend to the city. In the afternoon, calls for “revenge” had quickly circulated online.
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