Aftermath of an attack by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian village: Reporter's notebook
JIT, WEST BANK -- When a mob of Israeli settlers started attacking their village in the West Bank, Moaweya Seddeh said his two daughters, aged 6 and 2, were sitting in the front room, drinking juice, doing what young kids do.
As the assault began, in a moment of paternal instinct, Moaweya quickly rushed his girls to safety.
Seconds later, he told us, a settler threw a Molotov cocktail through the front window, landing in the spot where, just moments before, his 2-year-old had been.
When we visited that scene, the carton of juice his 6-year-old had been drinking was still sitting on the table.
But the plastic seat the girl had been sitting in was partially melted from the burning bomb the settlers had thrown into the room.
The area where his 2-year-old had been was, today, a blackened mess of shattered glass and burnt-out couches.
Although Moaweya's family home was badly damaged in the attack, it could have been way worse.
We visited several other homes in the West Bank village of Jit and each time we saw similar scenes; charred and blackened properties, burnt-out vehicles.
Surveillance cameras and the videos caught some of those attacks, and have been verified by ABC News.
The Israel Defense Forces said it acted quickly to quell the violence once it received reports of the attack.
However, villagers told a different story; they said IDF troops in the area had the chance to stop the settlers from accessing the village and failed to act.
We saw blood on the pavement where, we were told, a 23-year-old Palestinian villager was shot dead by an Israeli settler.
And this is not a one-off incident. There has been a spike in violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched a surprise terror attack on southern Israel.
One villager, Ahmad Seddeh called the violence on Jit a "savage attack."
Seddeh said the attack was completely unprovoked. "They just came and attack us for nothing, [for] no reason," he said.
Asked how recent attacks on Palestinian communities by Israeli settlers in the West Bank make him feel about the future, he replied, "we have no future."
Months ago, the Biden administration announced it was placing sanctions on a number of high-profile settlers who stand accused of perpetrating this type of violence.
On Friday, United States Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew said the attacks "must stop," and the Israeli government also condemned the violence.
But even at this volatile moment, Israeli officials seem unable or unwilling to protect Palestinian communities from this type of mob violence. Israeli Police, under the command of far-right Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, stand accused of protecting the settlers, not the victims of their attacks.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, 633 Palestinians, including 147 children, have died and more than 5,400 have been injured across the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Health.
ABC News' Tomer Slutzky contributed to this report.
