TURMUS: The Israeli army acknowledged on Friday it “failed” to prevent an attack by Jewish settlers on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank, during which one villager was killed.

Revenge attacks on Turmus Ayya and other villages followed the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen on Tuesday, which group Hamas said was in response to an Israeli army raid on Jenin refugee camp which killed six Palestinians the previous day.

Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said troops had tried to prevent Israelis from attacking Turmus Ayya but they were stretched too thin.

“We didn’t have, in the first wave, enough forces in the area they chose,” he told journalists on Friday.

Morocco puts off Arab-Israel summit amid strife in West Bank

“We failed this time,” Hagari added.

Turmus Ayya residents said they saw between 200 and 300 Israelis rampaging through their village on Wednesday, attacking residents and damaging dozens of houses and cars.

A delegation from more than 20 diplomatic missions, including those of the European Union and the United States, visited the village on Friday to inspect the damage.

The EU’s top representative to the Palestinians, Sven Kuehn von Burgsdorff, blasted Israel for failing to meet its obligations to protect Palestinians.

“There was no attempt or effort to stop the settlers,” he said.

Israeli police said on Friday they had arrested three people in connection with the violence, without giving details.

Turmus Ayya is home to a significant number of Palestinian-Americans and residents voiced their anger at the lack of action from Washington.

“We are helpless,” Yaser al-Kam, 33, sai.

“I’m speaking on behalf of this peaceful town where 80 per cent to 90pc of residents are US citizens. We hold passports, does this passport matter?” Al-Kam asked.

The 25-year-old Palestinian killed on Wednesday, Omar Jabara, was a US Green Card holder, a US official said.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk, warned “the violence, along with the inflammatory rhetoric, serve only to drive Israelis and Palestinians deeper into an abyss.” Israel’s extreme-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, insisted what was needed in the West Bank was a large-scale “military operation”.

“Terrorists eliminated, not one or two, but tens and hundreds, and if necessary even thousands,” said Ben-Gvir, himself a settler.

Summit delayed

Morocco will delay a summit it is hosting between Israel and Arab states that have signed “Abraham Accords” peace pacts, its foreign minister said on Friday, amid rising strife in the West Bank.

The decision to postpone the summit until after the summer comes after Israel decided to expand settlement-building in the occupied West Bank and after an Israeli raid on Jenin in which five people were killed.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the decision was partly over scheduling but also because of what he called “provocative and unilateral acts” that “undermine peace efforts in the region”.

He condemned the Israeli army raid on Jenin and rejected Israel’s decision to expand settlements in occupied territory where Palestinians want to establish an independent state.

Published in Dawn, June 24th, 2023