A senior Israeli minister has said the Palestinian village of Huwara should be “wiped out” days after far-right settlers went on a rampage in the occupied West Bank villages, torching dozens of houses and cars in the wake of the killing of two Israeli brothers.
“It’s incredibly inflammatory,” said Al Jazeera’s Imran Khan, reporting from West Jerusalem. “A very senior minister who is in charge of some affairs within the occupied West Bank for Israel calling for the destruction of a Palestinian city,” Khan said. At least 390 Palestinians were injured in the attacks that an Israeli general described as a “pogrom,” with Palestinian media reporting stabbings and attacks with metal rods and rocks.
Israeli forces carried out three large-scale raids in Palestinian cities since Israel’s new government took office at the end of last year, including one in Nablus on February 22 that led to the largest Palestinian death toll in a single Israeli military operation since 2005. Palestinian armed activity has also increased, with several groups emerging over the last year in the West Bank.
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