JERUSALEM (AFP) – The Israeli military said on Wednesday it had "failed" in its response to a settler attack in the occupied West Bank earlier this month that Palestinian officials said killed one man.
The August 15 raid on the northern West Bank village of Jit came amid soaring violence in the Palestinian territory during the Gaza war and growing international concern over an uptick in attacks by Jewish settlers.
Major General Avi Bluth, head of the military's Central Command which operates in the West Bank, was quoted in a statement as saying the attack was "a very serious terror incident in which Israelis set out to deliberately harm the residents of the town of Jit, and we failed by not succeeding to arrive earlier to protect them".
Jit residents have said about 100 settlers armed with knives and firearms set fire to cars and homes in the village.
The military, releasing on Wednesday a summary of its investigation, said the group wore masks, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails and set three vehicles and two buildings on fire.
The Palestinian health ministry said a 23-year-old Palestinian man, Rashid Sada, was shot dead in the attack.
Last week, Israeli police and the Shin Bet internal security service said they had arrested four suspects for "terrorist" acts in connection with the incident.
The military's investigation found that the first troops at the scene "did not manage to fully gauge the situation" and "needed to act more decisively", the statement said.
"Several members of the rapid response team from a nearby (settlement) community, who were not in active reserve duty, arrived at the scene without authorisation, dressed in uniform, and acted contrary to the authority defined for the members of the rapid response team," it added without elaborating.
Two members of the team "were dismissed, and their weapons were confiscated", it said.
The statement said the shooting that killed Sada and wounded another Palestinian occurred before more Israeli forces managed to disperse the assailants.
"The troops acted assertively, risking their lives, containing the rioters, and pushing them out of the town using crowd dispersal means and firing into the air," the statement said.
"Half an hour after the incident began, all Israelis were removed from the town."
Bluth was quoted as saying the case "will not be closed until we bring the perpetrators to justice".
RISING VIOLENCE
Israeli President Isaac Herzog "firmly" condemned the attack on Jit when it occurred.
Since Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel triggered war in Gaza, violence has flared in the West Bank, a Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 and separated geographically from Gaza by Israeli territory.
Israeli settlements in the West Bank, where some 490,000 people live, are illegal under international law. The United Nations considers them an obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian peace.
On Wednesday Washington announced new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians, urging Israel to bring greater accountability.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said on Wednesday that he viewed the sanctions "with utmost severity" and that they were the subject of "pointed discussion" with the US.
Since October 7, at least 637 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli troops or settlers, according to the United Nations.
During the same period, at least 19 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks, according to Israeli official figures.