JERUSALEM — Dozens of Israelis clashed with Israeli troops outside a military base in the occupied West Bank and set fire to a nearby security installation overnight, the Israeli military said Monday, in the latest violence perpetrated by hard-right Jewish extremists in the territory.
A hard-right protest over the Israeli military’s handling of Israeli settler attacks on a Palestinian town devolved into a riot. Extremists attacked security forces with pepper spray and vandalized military vehicles, the military said.
The confrontation occurred against a backdrop of rising tensions between settlers and the security forces over the Israeli military’s response to clashes between the settlers and Palestinians, and at least 11 Israelis have been detained in multiple incidents.
On Friday, an Israeli teenager was wounded by gunfire during clashes with soldiers, according to settler officials, prompting further outrage among hard-line settlers against the Israeli military’s behavior.
Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians have sharply increased in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Roughly 3 million Palestinians live in the territory alongside about 500,000 Israeli settlers under a two-tier legal system some human rights groups have compared to apartheid — a charge sharply disputed by Israel.
Some settlements are relatively sleepy communities whose residents are as likely to have been motivated by cheaper housing as by nationalist ideology. But the most radical, hard-line settlers live in hilltop outposts that former Israeli military officials have said are a regular source of extremist attacks on Palestinians.
Last Wednesday, at least three Palestinians were killed during a confrontation in the town of Kafr Malik outside the city of Ramallah, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
The Israeli military said its troops came under fire after Israeli rioters set Palestinian property ablaze, prompting clashes between the demonstrators and Palestinians in which both sides hurled stones at one another. Five Israelis were detained, the military said.
According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Israeli extremists descended on Kafr Malik around 7 p.m., arriving on foot and in vehicles. Many were masked, and several were armed. They hurled Molotov cocktails at buildings and cars, setting fires throughout the village, the witnesses said.
The Israeli military said “several terrorists” had fired from within Kafr Malik, leading its forces to shoot back. The Palestinian witnesses said they did not hear any shooting at Israeli soldiers before the troops opened fire.
Two days after the three Palestinians were killed, dozens of Israeli civilians again clashed with Israeli forces near Kafr Malik, including hurling stones at them, the Israeli military said.
The Israeli teenager was wounded during the incident, according to settler officials. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has raged during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. More than 850 Palestinians and 40 Israelis have been killed in the West Bank, according to the United Nations’ office of humanitarian affairs, which tracks casualties in the territory.
Over the past few months, the Israeli military has launched a sweeping campaign against Palestinian militants in the north of the territory, displacing tens of thousands of Palestinians from their homes in the cities of Jenin and Tulkarem.
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