Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Israeli soldiers have been filmed dancing with Jewish settlers in the streets of a Palestinian village where settlers attacked five members of the same family.
The five Palestinians were hospitalized following Monday night’s attack in Huwara, in the northern occupied West Bank, just a week after a settler rampaged through the village described as a “pogrom”.
An elderly man and a toddler were among those injured in the attack, in which settlers attacked residents, cars and shops with live ammunition, axes, stones and pepper spray.
The Idris family were sitting in their parked car outside a convenience store when at least three settlers ambushed them in an incident captured on surveillance camera footage.
“The settler broke the car window and hit me with an axe. They sprayed all of us with tear gas, we couldn’t open our eyes,” Omar Idris told local media. “When I got out of the car, I saw bullet holes in the car, but I was too exhausted to notice at the time,” he said.
Omar said settlers hit Idris’ father with a stone and cut his head open.
The Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din said Israeli soldiers were present at the incident but did not stop the attack.
The Israeli army, meanwhile, said its forces had “acted to spread the (violent) incidents”.
Videos shared online and verified by Al Jazeera showed an elderly man bleeding from his head and Omar’s two-and-a-half-year-old daughter screaming in hospital after the attack.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said it treated 25 others at the scene with tear gas fired by the Israeli army during the attack.
“A family survives from the terrorism of the settlers in Huwara – the car they were in was shot at by a settler for the eyes, ears and protection of the occupation soldiers,” said Ibrahim Melhem, spokesman for the Palestinian Authority (PA) presidency.
“The killers will continue to commit their crimes as long as they feel they can get away with it,” he added in a statement.
Israeli soldiers were filmed dancing and singing with settlers in the occupied West Bank town of Huwara, where attacks on the Jewish holiday of Purim left five Palestinians injured ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/mA5FIjQLR9
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) March 7, 2023
Israeli settlers and soldiers were also seen on Monday evening – the night of the attack – playing loud music and dancing together on Huwara’s main street on the Jewish holiday of Purim, in videos verified by Al Jazeera.
The Israeli army said it would investigate the incident, which was “not in line with what is expected of combatants in operational activity,” according to a statement quoted in Israeli media.
These developments come just over a week after hundreds of settlers launched a large-scale, hours-long organized attack on the village that killed a Palestinian man, injured hundreds, and set fire to more than 30 houses and 100 cars.
The frenzy followed the killing of two Israeli settlers by a Palestinian gunman on the main road in Huwara and was supported by several senior Israeli politicians.
Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also said Huwara should be “wiped out”, in comments that were widely condemned.
On Tuesday morning, Israeli settlers performed religious rituals under the protection of the Israeli army in the Palestinian town of Kifl Haris in the northern governorate of Salfit in the occupied West Bank.
Israel has imposed a closure on the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip during Purim, which began Monday and will end Wednesday night.
The closure means that all Palestinians in the occupied West Bank with Israeli permits from entering Jerusalem and Israel will be banned, including those with permits for medical treatment.
Between 650,000 and 700,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of illegal settlements and outposts scattered throughout the Palestinian West Bank and East Jerusalem, militarily occupied by Israel since 1967.
The majority of settlers are armed, and Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem suffer hundreds of attacks by Israeli settlers every year, including shootings, stabbings, arson, beatings and stone-throwing.
Many of these incidents have been captured on video showing that the attacks often take place in the presence of the Israeli army.
Violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians has reached its highest level since 2006, the United Nations told Al Jazeera.
In 2023, an average of three violent incidents per day will be registered, compared to two incidents per day in 2022 and one incident per day in 2021.
2022 was also the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since 2005, according to the United Nations, with at least 170 Palestinians killed by Israelis in the occupied territory, including more than 30 children.
That trend continued into 2023, with Israelis killing more than 65 Palestinians.
Thirteen Israelis and a Ukrainian have also been killed in Palestinian attacks this year.
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