The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had “failed” to respond to a settler attack in the occupied West Bank earlier this month that Palestinian officials said left one person dead.
The Aug. 15 raid on the northern West Bank village of Zeit came amid escalating violence in the Palestinian territory during the Gaza war and growing international concern about a rise in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth, head of the army’s Central Command operating in the West Bank, said in a statement that the attack was “a very serious terrorist incident in which Israelis deliberately tried to harm residents of the city of Zeit, and we could not have succeeded if we had not arrived earlier to rescue them.”
Residents of Jit reported that around 100 people armed with knives and firearms set fire to cars and houses in the village.
The army released a summary of its investigation on Wednesday, saying the group wore masks, threw stones and Molotov cocktails and set fire to three vehicles and two buildings.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that 23-year-old Palestinian man, Rashid Sada, was shot dead in the attack.
Last week, Israeli police and the Shin Bet internal security service said they had arrested four suspects for “terrorist” acts in connection with the incident.
The statement said a military investigation found that soldiers who first arrived at the scene “failed to fully assess the situation” and “needed to act more decisively.”
“Several members of the quick response team from the nearby (basti) community, who were not on active reserve duty, arrived at the scene without permission, were wearing uniforms, and acted contrary to the authority prescribed for members of the quick response team,” it said, without elaborating.
It said two members of the team were “dismissed and their weapons confiscated.”
The statement said the killing of Sada and the wounding of another Palestinian occurred before Israeli forces dispersed the attackers.
“The soldiers acted firmly, risking their lives, controlling the rioters, using means to disperse the crowd and firing in the air, and drove them out of the city,” the statement said.
“Half an hour after the incident began, all Israelis were removed from the town.”
Bluth said the case will not be closed until we bring the criminals to justice.
Escalating violence
Israeli President Isaac Herzog “strongly” condemned the attack on Jihat.
War has raged in Gaza since Hamas’ unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, and violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and geographically separated from Gaza by Israeli territory.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where about 490,000 people live, are illegal under international law. The United Nations considers them an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
On Wednesday, Washington announced new restrictions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians and urged Israel to bring greater accountability.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday that he views the sanctions “extremely seriously” and that they were the subject of “precise discussions” with the United States.
At least 660 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank since October 7, according to an AFP count based on Palestinian official figures.
During the same period, at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli official figures.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
