White House comments come after US ambassador to Israel said Washington will not ‘stand by and watch settler violence’. White House National Security spokesman John Kirby has said the United States is “actively engaging” with Israel following an Israeli settler attack on a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank that is home to many Palestinian Americans.
During a news conference on Friday, Kirby said several US government officials had met with victims of the attack in Turmus Ayya, a village near Ramallah. On Wednesday, residents said about 400 Israeli settlers had stormed the village and set cars, homes and vast tracts of farmland on fire before Israeli forces then descended upon the community. At least one Palestinian, 27-year-old Omar Qattin, a father of two who worked as an electrician for the local municipality, was killed in the violence and several others were injured. “We’ve certainly seen reports now of US citizens … having become victims of some of the violence, and we’re actively engaging with the government of Israel about that,” Kirby told reporters on Friday, without providing further detail…
Source:aljazeera.com
