An Israeli settler suspected of involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian man in the West Bank over the weekend was released from detention on Wednesday and transferred to house arrest, a Jerusalem court said.
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The Israeli judge said there was insufficient evidence to extend the detention of the radical Jewish settler, Elisha Yered. The court also ordered a second Israeli settler accused of shooting and killing the 19-year-old Qusai Matan to remain in custody while being hospitalized for wounds sustained during the attack last Friday on the Palestinian herding village of Burqa.
Video: Mourners bid farewell to Palestinian killed by Jewish settlers in West Bank / Credit: Reuters
They did something that is so horrific, so immoral," Matan's 34-year-old uncle, Hamam, said. "We can only expect these attacks to continue."
The killing of Matan near the West Bank city of Ramallah enraged Palestinians and drew condemnation from human rights groups and foreign diplomats. In a rare statement, the United States Office for Palestinian Affairs denounced the killing of Matan as a "terrorist attack" – a phrase typically reserved for Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians – and urged "full accountability and justice."
According to Palestinians, a mob of armed Israeli settlers stormed into the West Bank village last Friday, torching at least two cars and opening fire at Palestinians who thronged the street. Matan was killed and four other Palestinians were wounded. The IDF said that Matan was shot after an altercation between Palestinians and Israeli settlers escalated, leading Israeli settlers to open fire and Palestinians to hurl rocks and fireworks.
The episode added to an intense surge of violence that has gripped the West Bank and Israel in recent months.
Matan's family on Wednesday said that the court decision to place Yared under house arrest diminished their already grim expectations for justice.
"That they could shoot a young, innocent man in the neck and walked home," his uncle said.
Matan was "shy and good-humored," Hamam added, and had dropped out of high school to work at a spice shop in Ramallah and support his family. He was recently engaged to be married. "Our whole country is grieving," he said.
Police have accused the two Israeli settlers – Yered and Yehiel Indore – of causing death, obstructing justice, and committing a nationalistically motivated arson attack. The defendants claim that they were acting in self-defense after Palestinians attacked them while they were herding the flock of sheep.
The case has also stirred controversy in Israel because Yered worked as a spokesperson for a lawmaker in the far-Right Otzma Yehudit party led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.
"A Jew who defends himself and others against the murder of Palestinians is not a murder suspect, but a hero who will receive my full support," Ben-Gvir wrote on Twitter after the arrests of Yered and Yehiel.
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