West Bank: Israeli forces raid Hawara town after shooting attack wounds two Israeli settlers

 Two Israeli settlers were wounded in a shooting in the town of Hawara, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

One of the settlers - a man in his 30s - was seriously wounded in the attack, Israeli media reported, adding that he was hit by a bullet in the head.

"The shooting happened in the main street of Hawara, where Israeli settlers often drive through," Mueen Dmeidi, mayor of Hawara, told The New Arab.

"Five minutes later, the occupation army was raiding Hawara, opening fire randomly at anything that moved in the street," said the mayor.

"The occupation army imposed a total curfew on the town and are now deployed all over the town, searching houses," Dmeidi said.

"A young man who is not from Hawara was wounded by the soldiers, whom residents saw carrying him into a military jeep and arresting him," he added.

#Palestine / #Israel 🇵🇸🇮🇱: A gunman carried out a shooting in #Hawara, #WestBank and critically wounded an Israeli.

The attacker was arrested by ISF later; seemingly used a craft-made "Carlo" submachine gun, possibly chambered in 9x19mm. pic.twitter.com/kJG66qiZNU

— War Noir (@war_noir) March 19, 2023

Palestinian media reported that Israeli forces had wounded and arrested Laith Nadim Nassar, a Palestinian in his twenties from Madama, a village neighbouring Hawara.

"An occupation army's officer called Laith's family about an hour after the news of the shooting and summoned them for interrogation," Ihab Qutt, mayor of Madama, told TNA.

"Ihab is a regular young man from the village, unemployed, single and suffers from weak health," said Qutt.

"We have no information about his current condition, as all his family members went to meet the occupation officer and haven’t returned yet."

The shooting in Hawara came three days after Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in Jenin, including a teenager, in a military raid into the crowded commercial centre of the city.

Hawara was the stage of an earlier shooting in which two Israelis were killed, three weeks ago. The shooting followed Israel’s killing of 11 Palestinians in Nablus.

After the shooting, more than 400 Israeli settlers attacked Hawara, killing one Palestinian and torching some 30 houses and 90 cars. Residents' accounts of the incident said that settlers acted under the protection of the Israeli army.

Here it goes again. Settlers are calling to erase Hawara village after Israelis were attacked there earlier today. The next pogrom is just around the corner, and we can all see it coming pic.twitter.com/k23u8Wx11O

— Avner Gvaryahu (@AGvaryahu) March 19, 2023

Israeli settlers' social media accounts were also reportedly calling for a new group attack to "erase" Hawara after Sunday's shooting.

Hawara’s shooting took place while Palestinian and Israeli officials met in Egypt’s Sharm Al-Shaikh, in a security summit to discuss restoring calm in the West Bank.