Israeli settlers forcibly enter Palestinian home in latest West Bank attack

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian home in the south of the Israeli-occupied West Bank overnight, breaking in and killing sheep, a Palestinian official said Tuesday. It was the latest in a surge of attacks by settlers against Palestinians in the territory in recent months.

Israeli police said they arrested five settlers.

The settlers killed three sheep and injured four more, smashed a door and a window of the home, and fired tear gas inside, sending three Palestinian children under the age of 4 to the hospital, said Amir Dawood, who directs an office documenting such attacks within a Palestinian governmental body called the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission.

Police said they arrested the five settlers on suspicion of trespassing onto Palestinian land, damaging property and dispensing pepper spray, not tear gas. They said they are investigating.

CCTV video from the attack in the town of As Samu’, shared by the commission, showed five masked settlers in dark clothing, some with batons, approaching the home and appearing to enter. Sounds of smashing are heard, as well as animal noises. Another video from inside shows masked figures appearing to strike sheep in the stable.

Photos of the aftermath, also shared by the commission, show smashed car windows and a shattered front door. Bloodied sheep lie dead as others stand with blood staining their wool. Inside the home, photos show broken glass and the furniture ransacked.

Dawood said it was the second settler attack on the family in less than two months. He called it “part of a systematic and ongoing pattern of settler violence targeting Palestinian civilians, their property and their means of livelihood, carried out with impunity under the protection of the Israeli occupation.”

During October’s olive harvest, settlers across the territory launched an average of eight attacks daily, the most since the United Nations humanitarian office began collecting data in 2006. The attacks continued in November, with the U.N. recording at least 136 by Nov. 24.

Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza — areas claimed by the Palestinians for a future state — in the 1967 war. It has settled over 500,000 Jews in the West Bank, in addition to over 200,000 in contested east Jerusalem.

Israeli defense minister backtracks on Gaza settlements

Also on Tuesday, Israel’s defense minister spoke about establishing settlements in Gaza, two decades after Israel withdrew from the territory. Hours later, however, Israel Katz walked back his statements, which also appeared to draw a U.S. rebuke.

At a conference in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank, Katz said that “with God’s help,” Israel would re-establish settlements in northern Gaza “in place of the settlements that were evacuated.”

“We will do this in the right way, at the appropriate time,” he added.

After a video of the statement spread on social media, Katz’s office released a statement saying his comment was made “in a security context.” It reiterated that Israel “has no intention to establish settlements in the Gaza Strip.”

The U.S.-brokered ceasefire in Gaza calls for a near-total withdrawal of Israeli forces and makes no mention of rebuilding settlements.

A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, appeared to condemn Katz’s initial comments.

“The more Israel provokes, the less the Arab countries will want to work with them,” the official said, and added that the United States expects “all parties to adhere to the commitments they made” under the ceasefire plan.

Israel’s government is dominated by far-right proponents of the settler movement.