More than a hundred Israeli settlers carried out a violent assault on the Palestinian village of Jalud, in northern West Bank, on Monday night, where they set fire to vehicles and homes with the aim of preventing the return of a Palestinian family to their home. The attackers also erected barricades on access roads and threw stones at the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), according to a military spokesperson who detailed this on Tuesday, once security forces moved to the area to try to contain the disturbances.
"IDF and Border Police forces acted during the night (of Monday) in the area of the village of Jalud (...) to disperse Israeli rioters and protect the residents of the locality," a military spokesperson announced in a statement in which he specified that "the operation was carried out while coordinating the return of a Palestinian family to their home in the village."
The family "had been forced to leave" the house after "several incidents of nationalist violence against them." "Due to the violence, it was not possible to complete the mission of returning them to their home," the Israeli Army reported.
The military statement details that "more than 100 Israeli rioters gathered in the village, who blocked roads, burned tires, and threw stones at security forces," while the settlers "set fire to Palestinian buildings in the locality, as well as vehicles and other properties."
The IDF has not provided a balance of possible Palestinian casualties, but has confirmed that three members of the Border Police "sustained minor injuries and a security forces vehicle was damaged."
The Army added that its forces managed to disperse the crowd and "have arrested two suspects," who were subsequently taken to the police station for questioning. "Later, district investigators and forensic specialists from the security forces and the IDF will come to the site to collect findings, evidence, and testimonies for the initiated investigation," it added.
"The security establishment strongly condemns any aggression against security personnel in the exercise of their functions, as well as acts of vandalism and damage to property," stated the military spokesperson, who also warned that "incidents of this type divert attention, undermine stability, and harm the defense and counter-terrorism activities of the security forces."
The official Palestinian agency WAFA has confirmed the events and noted that the attacks, which lasted until the early hours of Tuesday, included the burning of two houses belonging to the same family, forced to leave in July after months of harassment and continuous aggression.
Hours before the assault, Israeli authorities had authorized this family to return to their home after nearly two months of forced displacement, in application of a resolution from the Supreme Court of Israel that recognized their right to recover their home.
The owner of the affected house, Mahmud al Tubasi, has declared to WAFA that the family has tried to return to their house according to the court order, but has found the extent of the destruction and damage suffered during the time the settlers occupied it and prevented access to its owners, leaving it, he emphasized, uninhabitable.
Reactions and condemnations in Israel
The events have provoked a swift wave of condemnations from the Israeli political leadership. The Foreign Minister, Gideon Saar, noted in a message on social media that these "disturbances" in Jalud, "which included the burning of properties and injuries to Border Police officers," are "serious and abominable."
"An investigation has been opened, and I urge the investigators from the Judea and Samaria District --the biblical name for the West Bank that authorities use to refer to this Palestinian territory-- and the forensic unit to carry out a thorough and complete inquiry to bring the rioters to justice," he said.
Saar also emphasized that "those who commit these criminal acts, forcing the Border Police and IDF troops to intervene, and even assaulting security forces, are criminals who must be prosecuted with the full weight of the law." "They undermine our values. They harm Jewish settlements. They harm Israel," he concluded.
In the same line, the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, has emphasized that these episodes of "grave violence" constitute "an atrocious act that must be punished with the full weight of the law." "It represents a moral stain and an affront to the rule of law and to our most fundamental values as a people and as a state," he has argued.
Herzog has insisted that "the arson, the throwing of stones, and the assaults, with the resulting injuries, against IDF soldiers and Border Police officers, who are fulfilling their duty according to the law, are strictly prohibited and are absolutely unjustifiable."
The president has especially lamented that the incidents occurred during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and has stressed that those involved in these acts "damaged the holiday, the settlements, and the entire nation." "This violence openly contradicts Jewish values," he has said.
"I express my support and backing to the IDF, to the Police of Israel, and to the security agencies in their operations, and I wish a speedy recovery to the injured," Herzog has stated, who has emphasized that "the authorities must act firmly against the offenders and ensure that they face the full weight of the law."