International
Palestinians describe 'brutal' West Bank settler attack
JIT, West BankĀ - Muawiya Sedeh, a 38 year-old father of five was at home in the West Bank village of Jit when his house was torched by a band of Jewish settlers, some masked and wielding Molotov cocktails, who stormed in on Thursday night (Aug 15).
He said he escaped with his family with only minutes to spare. When he returned, he said the settlers were jeering and taunting him, saying "We will come back and kill you!" and telling him to go to Jordan or Syria.
Local people said more than 100 people took part in the attack, many wearing masks and clad in black, and appeared well-coordinated, dividing into groups armed with guns and others throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
"I was lucky, it was a matter of minutes between life and death," Sedeh said.
Video shared on social media showed cars and houses ablaze and Palestinian emergency services reported that a 22-year-old man was killed by gunfire from the settlers.
The Jit attack was larger than recent raids by West Bank settlers but was hardly unique, with violence against Palestinian villages already on the rise as settlement building has spread unchecked across the West Bank.
