'Exterminate the beasts': How Israeli settlers took revenge for a murder in the West Bank [View all]

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The same message was being posted in various settler WhatsApp groups that morning. It called on the settlers to take matters into their own hands - "crowning" of nearby Palestinian villages (a term for blocking residents from leaving or entering), "home to home searches", and "collective punishment against the murderous Arab population".

The message also contained a list of meeting points. Hours later, a similar message would circulate in the settler groups but with fire emojis attached to each location, as well as calls from individual settlers to "eliminate the enemy", "exterminate the beasts", and - referring to a nearby Palestinian village - "let all of Duma burn".

What followed was a wave of shooting and arson attacks across 11 Palestinian villages in which a dozen homes and more than 100 cars were torched, thousands of animals were slaughtered, four people were shot dead and scores of others were seriously wounded. In the weeks since, five Israeli settlers have been arrested in connection with the reprisal violence, and one Palestinian is being held in connection with the murder of Benjamin Achimeir.

Achimeir's body was found very close to his outpost. But in their rampage the settlers would attack Palestinian villages up to 7km (4.3 miles) away. Records of some of their WhatsApp group chats that day, as well as testimony from Palestinian officials and families in the villages that came under attack, paint a picture of an organised campaign of revenge that was incited in part using WhatsApp, carried out by co-ordinated groups on the ground, and targeted against ordinary Palestinians with no apparent connection to the murder of Benjamin Achimeir other than the bad luck of living nearby.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-69052857