The US ambassador to Israel has condemned Israeli youths as "terrorist thugs" after recent attacks on a Christian village in Palestine.
Mike Huckabee declared the attacks "terrorism", claiming the perpetrators had "come there to create havoc".
The comments were made after masked youths were spotted torching Palestinian homes and vehicles, including in Taybeh, a prominent Palestinian Christian town.
The attack appears to be in response to the growing violence in the area, leading to some Israeli politicians claiming the state had lost control.
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Meanwhile, Israel increased its air strikes on Gaza after claiming some of its troops had come under fire in the south of the enclave, near Khan Younis, earlier in the week.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel "will take very forceful action against the riots" targeting IDF soldiers and Palestinians.
IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said the attacks "cross a red line and divert the attention of our forces from fulfilling their mission".
The Israeli strikes, which occurred on Wednesday, reportedly killed at least 25 people.
A man walks past Hebrew graffiti reading "Al-Mughayyir, you will regret" reportedly painted by Israeli settlers on a Palestinian home following an overnight attack on the Palestinian Christian village of Taybeh
|GETTY
Additional Israeli air strikes hit Khan Younis on Thursday, killing a further five people, hospital officials confirmed to the Associated Press.
The attack on Taybeh in particular, though, sparked a furious response from Mr Huckabee, who is an ordained evangelical pastor himself and a long-term supporter of Israel.
"Israelis can carry out terrorism as well. But most of these people are not actual settlers who live there," he told News Nation.
"This is a very small number, mostly of youth, angry and disaffected. These are thugs.
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"Many of them don’t even live in Judea and Samaria. They come into there to create havoc."
He continued: "It is a very tense time; we don’t want to pretend that it isn’t. But there has been every attempt on the part… even of the Israelis to say that those who are committing acts of terror, even if they’re Israelis, they’re going to feel the full force of the law, and Elizabeth, they should.
"The only way to bring some settlement is to have equal justice.
"Crime is crime, terrorism is terrorism, it doesn’t matter who does it, they have to be consequenced — and harshly."
US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee declared 'terrorist thugs' responsible for the recent attacks on a Christian Palestinian village
|YOUTUBE
Some arrests have been made this week as a result of the attack, but no charges have yet been brought to light.
Mr Huckabee's comments come after it was revealed that the Israeli ambassador met with convicted Israeli spy Jonathan J Pollard.
Mr Pollard spent 30 years in prison for espionage, but told NBC News that the meeting was “personal” and “wasn’t done surreptitiously.”
He said the main point of the meeting, which took place at the US Embassy in Jerusalem in July, was to "thank" the ambassador for “his efforts on my behalf during my incarceration.”
A former American intelligence analyst, Pollard was found to have passed critical security documents to Israeli intelligence in the 1980s.
He moved to the country in 2020 after his lengthy prison sentence.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt admitted on Thursday that the White House "was not aware" of the meeting, but that President Donald Trump "stands by our ambassador".
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