A building and cars burnt in an attack by Israeli settlers, following an incident where a Palestinian gunman killed two Israeli settlers, are seen near Hawara in the West Bank on February 27, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Ammar Awad

An Israeli fundraising effort to help those affected by the rampage that took place in the northern West Bank town of Huwara on Sunday has already surpassed its goal of raising 1 million shekels for local Palestinian residents whose property was destroyed by dozens of Israeli settlers.

Close to 9,300 Israelis have donated more than 1.3 million shekels to the crowdfunding campaign, which started the morning after the attack and will continue for two weeks. With the amount already collected every local family and business that suffered from the rampage by extremist Israeli settlers will likely receive several tens of thousands of shekels, the fundraiser’s organizer, Labour Party member Yaya Pink, said Monday on Twitter.

Pink, who also said he has received death threats and faced verbal harassment for trying to raise money for Huwara locals, wrote on the fundraiser’s webpage that “even out of enormous rage and terrible pain … we, as Jews, must not” engage in violence. “We must allow the security forces to do the job they know how to do well,” he noted, and additionally wrote in the description for the fundraiser, “As a religious person and as a Zionist, this is not my Judaism.”

The rampage in Huwara began hours after a terrorist attack on Sunday in the West Bank in which a Palestinian gunman shot dead Israeli brothers Hilel Menachem and Yigal Yaakov Yaniv, aged 21 and 19, before fleeing the scene, apparently on foot. Israeli forces are still searching for the gunman.

During the riots, hundreds of Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to dozens of residential homes in Huwara, at least 15 homes were damaged and over 25 cars were torched. Several Palestinians were injured by the Israeli settlers including at least two who were shot, another person who was stabbed and a fourth victim was struck with an iron bar, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent medical service.