Israeli army reservists stood by as dozens of armed Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank attacked Palestinian residents and torched their homes and cars, a preliminary investigation by Israel has revealed.
The attack resulted in the killing of a 23-year-old Palestinian man and dozens of others to be wounded, as the settlers opened fire in the village of Jit on Thursday.
The probe also showed that a “security squad” from the Havat Gilad illegal settlement outpost were present at the scene of the attack, but none of the settlers were arrested.
The soldiers “didn’t do anything to stop the pogrom…they just stood there next to them, saw everything and did nothing,” a senior defence official said, adding that Israeli intelligence and the Israeli army did not know it was going to happen before the attack took place. …..more