Huwara residents reflect on a night of violence which rocked the Palestinian town
I’ve been to Huwara many times, but never seen it like this. Driving in feels like you’re nearing the frontline of a war.
The streets, normally heaving with shoppers and cars parked bumper-to-bumper, are now quiet. The shops are all closed, metal shutters pulled down.
There are Israeli soldiers everywhere.
The IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) has put more units into the West Bank in recent days to calm the tension. As a tactic, it might work, but they’re not welcome here.
The town sits on a main road between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Nablus. It is surrounded by a number of Jewish settlements, and so it’s often the flashpoint for violence, but nothing like what happened on Sunday night.
Hundreds of settlers marched on the town to protest the killing of two young Jews earlier in the day.
They were shot dead in their car by a Palestinian gunman. He escaped and is still being hunted by the IDF.
I counted 79 burnt wrecks of cars in a yard on the edge of the town. The owner, Sultan Farouq, lives beside the yard – black smoke marks cover the walls of his home.
“Look at these flash bangs and smoke grenades,” he tells me, pointing out the Hebrew writing on them.
“They were fired towards our house by the soldiers. Why? We had children inside, and we were the ones being attacked.”
Sultan Farouq showing off the grenades thrown towards his property
CCTV footage shows masked settlers stacking wooden pallets in a doorway and setting them alight. They carry on for four minutes, the IDF apparently nearby, but no one stops them.
Nawal was alone inside. She is 75 years old. She tried to put the fire out by pouring water over the balcony, but tear gas was shot at her.
Because the fire cut the internet and electricity, her phone ran out of battery, and she couldn’t call for help. She was stuck inside before her son, Firaz, flew back from Dubai to get her out.
“She stayed here alone for 24 hours without anything, because no electricity, everything in the fridge was lost. She stayed alone,” he told me.
“We are going to the third intifada. This is the final intifada,” he predicts. This intifada maybe we stay here, or maybe Israel will stay here.”
The rampage has caused outrage across the world, but on Wednesday, one of the most senior Israeli government ministers – Bezalel Smotrich, the far-right finance minister – said Huwara should be “wiped out”.
Israel’s closest ally, the United States, didn’t mince its words.
“I want to be very clear about this. These comments were irresponsible. They were repugnant. They were disgusting,” said a State Department spokesman.
The attacks have also been criticised by many Israelis. A crowdfunding effort was started and has now raised more than £400,000.
“99% of them (the donors) are Jewish, because the Jewish people, the majority of them are moderate, and they don’t want racism, they don’t want nationalism, they don’t want hatred,” said Yaya Fink, who started the campaign.
“It’s maybe one of the most successful crowdfunding projects ever in Israel, and when we finish collecting the money, we’re going to transfer it to the small businesses and to the innocent families that were attacked in Huwara three days ago.”
The fast-moving developments on Trump’s Ukraine peace deal are dominating the G20 summit in South Africa, as European leaders scramble to put together a counter-proposal to the US-Russia 28-point plan and reinsert Ukraine into these discussions.
European countries are now working up proposals to put to President Trump ahead of his deadline of Thursday to agree a deal.
Ukraine is in a tight spot. It cannot reject Washington outright – it relies on US military support to continue this war – but neither can it accept the terms of a deal that is acutely favourable to Russia, requiring Ukraine to give up territory not even occupied by Moscow and reducing its army.
Overnight, the UK government has reiterated its position that any deal must deliver a “just and lasting peace”.
Ukraine war latest: Kyiv to discuss ending war in talks in Switzerland
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Keir Starmer calls for growth plan at G20
The prime minister, who spoke with E3 allies President Macron of France, Chancellor Merz of Germany and President Zelenskyy of Ukraine on the phone on Friday, is having more conversations today with key partners as they work out how to handle Trump and improve this deal for Ukraine.
One diplomatic source told me allies are being very careful not to criticise Trump or his approach for fear of exacerbating an already delicate situation.
Instead, the prime minister is directing his attacks at Russia.
Read more:
Trump’s 28-point Ukraine peace plan in full
Analysis: We could all pay if Europe doesn’t guarantee Ukraine’s security
Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends a plenary session on the first day of the G20 Leaders’ Summit. Pic: Reuters
“There is only one country around the G20 table that is not calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine and one country that is deploying a barrage of drones and missiles to destroy livelihoods and murder innocent civilians,” he said on Friday evening.
“Time and again, Russia pretends to be serious about peace, but its actions never live up to its words.”
Pic: AP
On the Trump plan, the prime minister said allies are meetin on Saturday “to discuss the current proposal on the table, and in support of Trump’s push for peace, look at how we can strengthen this plan for the next phase of negotiations”.
Strengthening the plan really means that they want to rebalance it towards Ukraine’s position and make it tougher on Russia.
“Ukraine has been ready to negotiate for months, while Russia has stalled and continued its murderous rampage. That is why we must all work together with both the US and Ukraine, to secure a just and lasting peace once and for all,” said the prime minister.
“We will continue to coordinate closely with Washington and Kyiv to achieve that. However, we cannot simply wait for peace.
“We must strain every sinew to secure it. We must cut off Putin’s finance flows by ending our reliance on Russian gas. It won’t be easy, but it’s the right thing to do.”
Pic: AP
Europeans hadn’t even seen this deal earlier in the week, in a sign that the US is cutting other allies out of negotiations – for now at least.
Starmer and other European leaders want to get to a position where Ukraine and Europe are at least at the table.
There is some discussion about whether European leaders such as Macron and Meloni might travel to Washington to speak to Trump early next week in order to persuade him of the European and Ukrainian perspective, as leaders did last August following the US-Russian summit in Alaska.
But Sky News understands there are no discussions about the PM travelling to Washington next week ahead of the budget.
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