With the West Bank in Flames, De-escalation Attempts Yet To Bear Fruit 

Death toll mounts on both sides even as Israeli, Palestinian officials meet in Jordan to discuss steps to reduce tensions; but with both governments showing signs of division and weakness, it is unclear when and how the cycle will end

Israeli settlers set a Palestinian village on fire in retaliation for the killing of two settlers earlier on Sunday in yet another bloody day of the conflict.

As flames engulfed the village of Hawara in the West Bank, houses, cars and businesses were set on fire. According to Palestinian health officials, one civilian was killed and scores were wounded.

The incidents came at a time of already heightened tensions between the sides. 

According to United Nations data, over 40 Palestinians and 13 Israelis have been killed in the conflict since the beginning of 2023. The previous year marked the deadliest year in the West Bank in nearly two decades and the future only looks darker.

The two Israelis killed Sunday were shot by a Palestinian assailant who approached their car in a traffic jam in the West Bank and shot them from close range. The attacker then fled, kickstarting an Israeli army manhunt in the city of Nablus. Hours later, angry settlers entered Hawara, the village adjacent to Nablus, and began a rampage that ended hours later.

During the event, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu released a video calling for calm.

“I ask – even when the blood is boiling – not to take the law into one’s hands,” he said. 

But the violence continued after; no one was listening. 

Leading an extreme right-wing government, Netanyahu and his allies have vowed a tougher stance towards the Palestinians. His senior partners, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, are from the far-right and have consistently closed the doors on any negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. 

The turn of events did not come as a surprise to many.

“We have predicted this and we have been trying to warn against this,” said Dalal Saeb Iriquat, an assistant professor at the Arab American University. 

“With the current Israeli government, the settlers have the green light to commit crimes against the Palestinian people.” 

Iriquat refuses to equate Palestinian and Israeli violence, saying Palestinians “should not be expected to do anything else but defend themselves by all means.”

Caught in the middle is Netanyahu. Sandwiched between international pressure, internal politics and his own tendency to navigate carefully between the two without making major decisions. 

After over a decade as premier, Netanyahu has mostly been successful at managing the contradicting pressures. But the current political constellation has put him in a bind. 

“There are signs of a semi-chaotic situation within the Israeli government,” said Eran Lerman, Vice President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic and Security Studies and former deputy Israeli national security adviser. 

“There is a rift between the ideological, radical element of the coalition that is insurgent to the traditional position of the security establishment and the element, which still maintains a strong connection to that establishment,” he said. 

The Israeli premier, who needs Smotrich and Ben-Gvir for his political survival, is in a “serious trap” according to Lerman. 

Ben-Gvir denounced the events in Hawara on Monday, saying it is the government that needs to “crush the enemy.” He also criticized “professionals” who call for containment of the conflict. 

Ben-Gvir was speaking at the West Bank outpost of Evyatar, which was re-occupied by settlers in response to Sunday’s attack and later evacuated by Israeli security forces. Ben-Gvir came to condemn the evacuation executed by orders his own government gave.

A statement from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry likened the events in Hawara to the Holocaust, saying the “rising assaults against our people in the West Bank are nothing but a true representation of the racist policies of the Netanyahu-Ben Gvir” government.”

According to data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), there have been over 20 incidents of attacks by Israeli settlers toward Palestinians since the beginning of the year, with dozens of cases of property damage and several casualties. Many of the attacks allegedly perpetrated by Israelis have gone unpunished, often unsolved as it seems authorities in the country invest little effort in solving the crimes. 

The rampage in Hawara could be seen as a natural evolution of this trend. Graduating from graffiti and vandalism, those who entered the village and torched it felt they had the backing of leading members of the current government. 

Both Smotrich and Ben Gvir have expressed their will to annex the West Bank territories and expand Israeli settlements. In recent weeks, in response to attacks by Palestinians, the government has approved the construction of thousands of new housing units and the retroactive legalization of illegal Jewish outposts in the territories.

“There is no need to interpret or explain their words,” said Iriquat. 

Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Mideast War. While the international community sees Israeli presence there as illegal, Israel has settled the area with over half a million Jewish residents, not including East Jerusalem. Palestinians see the land as an integral part of their future state.

Starting almost a year ago, a series of attacks carried out by Palestinians against Israelis sparked an intensification of military incursions into Palestinian cities in the northern West Bank. This began before the swearing-in of the current government, believed to be Israel’s most right-wing ever. 

The string of attacks has killed 19 people in Israel. The attempts by the Israeli army to quell the violence have led to increased friction and while the military claims it has thwarted many attacks, tensions continue to simmer and people on both sides continue to pay the price.

The flare-up on Sunday came hours after a US-sponsored summit between Israelis and Palestinians in Jordan was meant to find ways to relieve the tensions. The meeting was an attempt to lower the flames ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, set to begin at the end of March. 

 “What was in Jordan (if there was anything), stays in Jordan,” Ben Gvir tweeted, indicative of the Israeli attitude towards the summit. 

Smotrich called on Netanyahu to withdraw the Israeli delegates from the summit.

“‘Calm’ will only be achieved when the Israel Defense Forces hits the cities of terror and its perpetrators mercilessly, with tanks and helicopters, in such a way that it will demonstrate that the master of the house has gone mad,” he tweeted on his account.

Smotrich, who has authority over the civilian aspects of life in the West Bank for both Israelis and Palestinians, vowed to continue Israeli settlement construction. Reports that Israel has agreed to a settlement freeze as a measure to ease the tensions have been denied by senior ministers, including the premier. 

Critics of the Netanyahu government said scenes of settlers ransacking Hawara were a result of incitement.  

As the Jordanian Foreign Ministry released a statement saying the sides had committed to de-escalation, reality on the ground spiraled in the opposite direction. 

According to Lerman, although there could be more violence in the immediate future, the Aqaba summit leaves room for a sliver of optimism.

“Paradoxically, the loss of control could lead to restraint and sobering up on both sides,” he said. “Ignoring the event, like some elements in the Israeli government say they would like to do, will not be possible.”

As Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant toured the scene of the attack that took the lives of two Israelis, he struck an ominous note. 

“We expect difficult days ahead of us,” he told reporters at the site.

All the while, the internal crisis in the Palestinian Authority (PA) intensifies. The violence stemming from the northern West Bank has been a constant reminder of the continuous loss of control by the PA and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas. The Palestinians are also divided between the PA in the West Bank and Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip, hindering progress both internally and with Israel. 

Coupled with the complex Israeli political situation, Lerman says this is a “very dangerous situation.” 

As Ramadan approaches, de-escalation is needed. Two years ago, tensions surrounding holy sites in Jerusalem during Ramadan sparked a war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

There is enough tension in the air now for things to further combust. 

The last time Israelis and Palestinians sat and negotiated was in 2014. The resumption of such talks is not on the agenda of either side at this point. 

“There is no promising tomorrow,” said Iriquat. “There is no hope for a peaceful resolution, but Palestinians will not give up hope on their homes, lands and being Palestinians.”

With both sides on a collision course, hope is a fleeting commodity.