HUWARA: Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Monday counted the cost of deadly violence and arson by Zionist settlers targeting a town where two Zionist brothers were killed. Dozens of Zionist settlers set homes and cars ablaze in the northern town of Huwara overnight, after a day of Zionist-Palestinian talks in neighboring Jordan aimed at quelling a surge in violence in the Palestinian territory.

More than 350 Palestinians were injured, most suffering from tear gas inhalation, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said. The Palestinian health ministry said Sameh Aqtash, 37, was shot dead during an attack by Zionist forces and settlers on the nearby village of Zaatara. The violence came hours after two Zionist settlers - brothers Yagel Yaniv, 20, and Hallel Yaniv, 22 — were shot dead Sunday as they drove through Huwara.

On Monday, an AFP photographer saw damaged homes blackened by fire, long lines of charred cars, burned trees and smashed windows in the town. “They burned the cars and the houses and destroyed everything,” Huwara resident Diaa Odeh said. “Whenever we started to push the settlers back, the army was firing tear gas at us,” added the 25-year-old.

Wajeh Odeh, a member of the town’s municipality, said 30 houses were burned and damaged while more than 100 cars were torched. A Zionist military official said 300 to 400 people went to the area for “revenge” and described the violence as “actions of terror”, without elaborating. “(We are) trying to de-escalate and keep the two sides apart in this very, very hard situation that we are in,” the official told journalists.

Abdel Moneim Aqtash said he and his brother were standing outside a blacksmith’s workshop when they were attacked by Zionist settlers. “They left the area and then came back with the occupation (Zionist) army... The army shot my brother, not the settlers,” he told AFP. The military told AFP that Aqtash “was not shot by a (Zionist) soldier”.

Yoav Gallant, defense minister in Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new right-wing coalition government, said he expected “difficult days ahead” and had ordered troops to be reinforced. “With this being said, I call on everyone to restore calm... We cannot allow a situation in which citizens take the law into their (own) hands,” he said.

The Zionist military told AFP that 10 people were arrested over the violence, but a spokesperson was unable to detail how many had since been released. The search for the gunmen who fired on the two brothers was ongoing, the military official said. The West Bank is home to about 2.9 million Palestinians as well as an estimated 475,000 Zionist settlers, who live in state-approved settlements considered illegal under international law.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ office accused the Zionist entity of “protecting terrorist acts perpetrated by settlers” in the West Bank. Hamas, the militant group which rules Gaza, called on Palestinians “to defend the city of Nablus and repel the settlers’ terrorism”. Zionist rights groups BTselem and Peace Now said the Huwara attack amounted to “a pogrom”.

The violence on Sunday came amid talks in Jordan, where Zionist and Palestinian officials pledged to work to prevent further violence. In a statement, both sides reaffirmed “the need to commit to de-escalation on the ground”. On Monday, Germany said it was “urgent that agreements to de-escalate the situation are respected”, while France said “violence against Palestinian civilians is unacceptable”. - AFP