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Scores of Israeli settlers have gone on a violent rampage in the northern West Bank, setting alight dozens of cars and homes after two settlers were killed by a Palestinian gunman.
Palestinian medics said one man was killed and four others were badly wounded in what appeared to be the worst outburst of settler violence in decades.
The deadly shooting on Sunday, followed by the late-night rampage, immediately raised doubts about Jordan’s declaration that Israeli and Palestinian officials had pledged to calm a year-long wave of violence.
Palestinian media said 30 homes and cars were torched. Photos and video on social media showed large fires burning throughout the town of Hawara – scene of the deadly shooting earlier in the day – and lighting up the sky.
In one video, a crowd of Jewish settlers stood in prayer as they stared at a building in flames. Earlier, a prominent Israeli cabinet minister and settler leader had called for Israel to strike “without mercy”.
Late on Sunday, the Palestinian health ministry said a 37-year-old man was shot and killed by Israeli fire. The Palestinian Red Crescent medical service said two other people were shot and wounded, a third person was stabbed and a fourth was beaten with an iron bar. Ninety-five others were being treated for teargas inhalation.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, condemned what he called “the terrorist acts carried out by settlers under the protection of the occupation forces tonight”.
“We hold the Israeli government fully responsible,” he added.
The European Union said it was “alarmed” by the violence in Hawara and that “authorities on all sides must intervene now to stop this endless cycle of violence”. The UK’s ambassador to Israel, Neil Wigan, said “Israel should tackle settler violence, with those responsible brought to justice”.
As videos of the violence appeared on evening news shows, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, appealed for calm and urged against vigilante violence. “I ask that when blood is boiling and the spirit is hot, don’t take the law into your hands,” he said in a video statement.
The Israeli military said its chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzl Halevi, had rushed to the scene. It said troops were being reinforced in the area as they worked to restore order and search for the gunman.
Ghassan Douglas, a Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the Nablus region, said settlers burned at least six houses and dozens of cars in Hawara, and reported attacks on other neighbouring Palestinian villages. He estimated about 400 Jewish settlers took part in the attack.
“I never seen such an attack,” he said.
The rampage occurred shortly after the Jordanian government, which hosted Sunday’s talks at the Red Sea resort of Aqaba, said both sides had agreed to take steps to de-escalate tensions and would meet again next month before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The situation on the ground immediately cast those commitments into doubt.
The Palestinians claim the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza Strip – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 war – for a future state. About 700,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. The international community overwhelmingly considers the settlements as illegal and obstacles to peace.
The West Bank is home to a number of hardline settlements whose residents frequently vandalise Palestinians land and property. But rarely is the violence so widespread.
Prominent members of Israel’s far-right government called for tough action against the Palestinians.
The Israeli finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader who has been put in charge of much of Israel’s West Bank policy, called for “striking the cities of terror and its instigators without mercy, with tanks and helicopters”.
Using a phrase that calls for a more heavy-handed response, he said Israel should act “in a way that conveys that the master of the house has gone crazy”.
Late on Sunday, however, Smotrich appealed to his fellow settlers to let the army and government do their jobs. “It is forbidden to take the law into your hands and create dangerous anarchy that could spin out of control and cost lives,” he said.
Earlier, an Israeli ministerial committee gave initial approval to a bill that would impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted in deadly attacks. The measure was sent to lawmakers for further debate.
Tensions at the site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif have often spilled over into violence, and two years ago sparked an 11-day war between Israel and the Hamas militant group during Ramadan.
Sunday’s shooting in Hawara came days after an Israeli military raid killed 10 Palestinians in the nearby city of Nablus. The shooting occurred on a major road that serves both Palestinians and Israeli settlers. The two men who were killed were identified as brothers, ages 21 and 19, from the Jewish settlement of Har Bracha.
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