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Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Finance Minister
Photo: ABIR SULTAN / EPA
Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians are not diminishing.
The Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich was now carried away to a particularly violent formulation.
He spoke of "wiping out" the small Palestinian town of Huwara in the West Bank.
Smotrich, who is also responsible for settlement development in the West Bank, told the business newspaper TheMarker: "I think the village of Huwara needs to be wiped out.
I think the State of Israel has to do this - for God's sake no private individuals."
A suspected Palestinian assassin shot dead two Israeli brothers in the town south of Nablus on Sunday.
After that, Israeli settlers rioted near the scene of the crime, injuring hundreds of Palestinians.
Dozens of houses, shops and cars were also set on fire.
Investigations against MPs from far-right coalition party
According to estimates by the Central Palestinian Bureau of Statistics, around 7,400 Palestinians live in Huwara.
A central connecting road runs through the small town, which is also used daily by many Israeli settlers in the northern West Bank.
A deputy from the far-right coalition party Ozma Jehudit expressly welcomed the riots in Huwara.
'After a murder like yesterday, the villages will burn if the army doesn't do anything.
Huwara closed and burned, that's what I want to see,” said Zvika Fogel.
Israeli Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara then ordered a police investigation into Fogel.
The charge: incitement to violence.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had called on the Israelis not to take the law into their own hands.
Numerous deaths since the beginning of the year
Since the beginning of the year, 13 Israelis and one Ukrainian have been killed in Palestinian attacks.
In the same period, 63 Palestinians lost their lives - they were killed, for example, in confrontations with the Israeli army or in their own attacks.
Israel conquered the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
More than 600,000 Israeli settlers live there today.
The Palestinians claim the territories for their own state.
tfb/dpa