The attack by hundreds of armed Israeli settlers on Friday left at least one person dead according to local officials, and was one of the largest such attacks this year, according to Palestinian officials.
It's estimated that between 1,000 and 1,200 settlers surrounded the village, and around 500 stormed it just after midday local time on Friday, blocking all the roads in the area.
According to Abu-Alia [head of the village council], the Israeli military arrived at the scene at around 3 p.m. local time, but did not stop the settlers from attacking the village. Instead, Israeli soldiers allowed them to raid homes, prevented Palestinian residents from moving around and blocked ambulances from reaching the injured, he alleged.
Israeli security forces had informed Palestinian officials that the settlers were looking for an Israeli teenager who had gone missing earlier in the day.
Punishing random members of an entire ethnicity is not helpful and only screws over Israel in the long run. These extremist settlers are making coexistence impossible and that’s intentional since they are the group in Israel who are most opposed to any two state solution.
That’s the most recent case that provoked this latest pogrom, but Settlers have been attacking Palestinian towns for years. The Israeli Supreme Court ruled that settlers don’t have to be punished equally as Palestinians for the same crimes.
Well for starters it might be because there's zero proof that Palestinians had anything to do with it. Even if (and again it's IF) Palestinians had something to do with it, that's not justification for what happened. Finally, this is just another instance of the increased settler violence in the West Bank (not Gaza), which has seen over 460 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire since Oct. 7th.
Because this part is more shocking? I think if the last 6 months has taught us anything it's possible to retaliate to something so extremely that everybody ends up thinking you're the asshole.
To spell it out: this was a very extreme reaction to the problem, mainly harming innocent people which is playing out against the backdrop of what seems to be a genocide.
If they just seemed like the likely culprits I would certainly not get together 1,000 of my unhinged friends and storm the town, burning cars and homes, stealing 70 sheep and blocking ambulances. Because I am not evil or stupid. Shockingly, they did not get the kid back.
Honestly, I would look for more evidence or more likely, tell what I know to the police. This is how you deal with these problems in civilised countries. Where I am from doing what these people did would get you arrested.
If you think punishing innocent people for this IMAGINED crime (since they do not know and apparently didn't find the kid) is acceptable you seriously need help. What they did is an unjustified crime, and blocking ambulances from reaching the injured would be the most disgusting thing I'd heard in a long time of the IDF hadn't raised that bar way too high already.
So there is strong support for Hamas from the Palestinian people. Hamas killed and kidnapped 2000 Israelis. In fact, Hamas still has kidnapped Israelis. And somehow, this according to you is acceptable because you’ve only mentioned how disgusting it is for Israelis to block ambulances - nothing about holding innocent people as hostages.
I’m going to make my point very clear. Blocking ambulances is wrong and disgusting yes. But not talking about literal innocent hostages because it doesn’t fit your narrative is also disgusting
In fact, Hamas still has kidnapped Israelis. And somehow, this according to you is acceptable because you’ve only mentioned how disgusting it is for Israelis to block ambulances - nothing about holding innocent people as hostages.
Sorry but this is pathetic. Can you find anywhere where I actually said that this is acceptable? NO! Because I don't think it is and would never say so. Feel free to look if you want to waste your time. So why would you make this suggestion? I think I can answer this too:
Blocking ambulances is wrong and disgusting yes
You bookended this with comments about innocent hostages held by Hamas because you think that no matter what Israel did, Hamas are still the bad guys. So rather than just criticising Israel - which you did do, to be fair - you have to put in all of this "Hamas bad" hasbara as well even though we can all read the story of what happened here. You don't want to just criticize the IDF and settlers even though they are obviously in the wrong here.
The facts in this case are that a group of violent settlers stormed a town full of innocent people on the basis of undoubtedly flimsy evidence to dish out mob justice for a possibly even imagined crime. I don't know why anyone would have an issue with just calling it out for the horrendous shit it is and condemning the IDF for letting it happen and blocking the fucking ambulances. Where are your morals?
Also, fyi, Israel has plenty of hostages (aka people held in "administrative detention" without charge). Does the fact you didn't mention this mean that you support it? Or is this all of a sudden a very dishonest way to argue?