Israeli settlers attack 2 Palestinian villages in West Bank

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JERUSALEM – Dozens of masked Israeli settlers attacked a pair of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, setting vehicles and other property on fire and then clashing with Israeli soldiers sent to stop the unrest, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.

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It was the latest in a series of attacks by young settlers in the West Bank.

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Israeli police said four Israelis were arrested in what it called “extremist violence” and the Israeli military said four Palestinians were wounded. Police and Israel's internal security agency Shin Bet said they were investigating.

Videos on social media showed two charred trucks on fire and a nearby building also on fire. Settler violence has risen sharply since war broke out in the Gaza Strip two years ago. The attacks have intensified in recent weeks as Palestinians harvest their annual olive trees.

Earlier on Tuesday, tens of thousands of Israelis attended the funeral of an Israeli soldier whose remains were kept in Gaza for 11 years, crowding and blocking surrounding streets as grim crowds stood holding Israeli flags.

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Lt. Hadar Goldin's funeral marked a moment of closure for his family, who had traveled the world as part of a public campaign seeking his return. The huge turnout also reflected the importance of the election to the general public in Israel, where Goldin has become a household name.

Hamas returned his remains on Sunday as part of a US-brokered ceasefire that began last month. The bodies of four hostages taken during the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, are still in the Gaza Strip.

Settler violence in the West Bank

The UN humanitarian office last week reported more attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank in October than in any other month since it began tracking the situation in 2006. There were more than 260 attacks, according to the office.

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Palestinians and human rights activists accuse the Israeli army and police of failing to stop settler attacks. Israel's government is dominated by West Bank settlers, and the police are controlled by Cabinet Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a hardline settler leader.

In Tuesday's incident, the army said soldiers initially responded to settler attacks in the villages of Beit Lid and Deir Sharaf. The report said the settlers fled to a nearby industrial area, attacked soldiers dispatched to the scene and damaged a military vehicle.

Palestinian official Muayyad Shaaban, who heads the government commission against the wall and settlements, said settlers set fire to four milk trucks, farmland, tin shacks and tents belonging to the Bedouin community.

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He said the attacks were part of a campaign to drive Palestinians from their lands and accused Israel of providing settlers with protection and immunity. He called for sanctions against groups that “sponsor and support the terrorist settlement colonial project.”

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned the attacks during his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris on Tuesday, saying that “settler violence and the acceleration of settlement construction are reaching new heights, threatening the stability of the West Bank.”

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip still have difficulty accessing food

Displaced Palestinians in central Gaza said they still rely heavily on soup kitchens for their only daily meals as rising market prices and lack of income leave them struggling.

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Dozens of people, most of them children, lined up with empty pots at a soup kitchen in the Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday, waiting to be served rice, the only food available that day.

“The missiles and planes have stopped, but the rising cost of living has become the most powerful weapon used against us,” said Mohamed al-Nakla, a displaced Palestinian.

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said the number of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip had risen to 69,182. Its tallies, which independent experts generally consider reliable, do not differentiate between fighters and civilians, but the ministry says more than half of those killed were women and children.

The last war began with the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, when about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 kidnapped.

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Netanyahu's close adviser resigns

Cabinet Minister Ron Dermer, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's closest confidantes, announced his resignation on Tuesday due to family reasons.

In the letter, Dermer said he promised his family he would serve two years, but extended his sentence for another year to deal with Iran's nuclear program and “end the war in Gaza on Israel's terms and bring our hostages home.”

US-born Dermer is the former Israeli ambassador to Washington. As Minister of Strategic Affairs, he served as Netanyahu's envoy throughout the war, negotiating with the United States and negotiating a ceasefire.

Funeral of a soldier whose remains were kept for 11 years

Goldin was 23 when he was killed two hours after a ceasefire in the 2014 war between Israel and Hamas took effect. In the years leading up to the 2023 attack, posters with the faces of Goldin and Oron Shaul, another soldier whose body was stolen during the 2014 war, stared down from street corners.

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The Israeli military has long established that Goldin was killed based on evidence found in the tunnel where his body was taken, including a blood-soaked shirt and prayer fringes. The company announced Tuesday that it had dismantled the tunnel shaft where his body was discovered. In January, the military took Shaul's body.

The eulogies from Goldin's siblings, parents and former fiancee at his funeral never mentioned Netanyahu, who was prime minister when Goldin was kidnapped and for much of the time since. They thanked the Israeli military, including reserve soldiers, who searched tirelessly for years for Goldin's body.

Netanyahu did not attend the funeral, although Israeli Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir delivered a eulogy on behalf of the military.

For years, Israel had four hostages in Gaza: Goldin, Shaul and two Israelis with mental health problems who crossed into Gaza on their own and were held in custody since 2014 and 2015. All four were returned last year.

Mor reported from Kfar Saba, Israel. Lidman reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press reporters Julia Frankel and Ibrahim Hazboun in Jerusalem and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

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