Settlers attack a Palestinian family in Huwara
Palestinian Omar Khalifa, 27, points to the bullet hole in his car, which was attached by Israeli settlers while he was in it with his family, in Huwara, the Israeli-occupied West Bank, March 7, 2023. Reuters

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the West Bank village of Huwara overnight on Monday, the scene of a violent rampage last week by dozens of settlers seeking revenge for the shooting of two Israelis sitting in their car at a nearby checkpoint.

Huwara, a Palestinian village near a major road junction where settlers and Palestinians have frequently clashed, has become the latest flashpoint between after months of worsening violence in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli army and border police forces dispersed crowds of what the military described as "a number of violent riots" in Huwara and videos shared on social media showed a group of black-clad youths attacking a Palestinian car before its driver manages to pull away.

"They were shooting at us with live ammunition. God helped us," said Omar Khalifa, who had just finished shopping at a supermarket and had got into the car with his family when the attack took place.

"My wife was sitting in the back and she hugged our daughter to cover her. We could have lost her, there was real danger to our lives."

Other footage appeared to show Israeli soldiers dancing together with Jewish settlers in the town on what was the Jewish festival of Purim. "Huwara has been conquered, gentlemen!," a voice is heard saying in Hebrew.

The military did not address a question about the footage of soldiers dancing with settlers when it responded to a request for information on the incident. Nor did it immediately respond to a Reuters query on whether there had been any arrests.

"They came close to the supermarket and they were carrying axes and stones," said Faisal Shehada, who witnessed the attack. "They started by throwing stones and we faced them, then soldiers arrived and there was shootings and they smashed cars."

POGROM

Last week, settlers torched dozens of cars and houses in Huwara after two brothers were shot by a presumed Palestinian gunman as they sat in their car at a checkpoint nearby.

The rampage, described as a "pogrom" by a senior Israeli commander, triggered worldwide outrage and condemnation, which was increased when Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has responsibility for aspects of the West Bank administration, said Huwara should be "erased". Smotrich later offered a retraction.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken overnight reiterated calls for both sides to de-escalate tensions in the West Bank and the violence is also expected to be raised by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin when he visits this week.

As well as fuelling deep anger among Palestinians, the clashes in Huwara have exposed political fault lines in Israel already widened by a bitter battle over an overhaul of the justice system being pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's religious-nationalist government.

"A group of hooligan settlers, in the middle of the Purim holiday, went to attack innocent passers-by in the village of Huwara," the leader of the centre-left opposition Labour Party Merav Michaeli said on Twitter.

"This is not 'youth at the margins' - this is the mainstream, supported by key members of the current government," she added. "Both of them are destroying Israel."

Since the beginning of the year, Israeli forces have killed more than 65 Palestinians, including militant fighters and civilians, while in the same period, Palestinians have killed 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian woman in a series of apparently uncoordinated attacks by individuals.