Israel's police said they had detained another eight suspects involved in the Feb. 26 riot conducted by hundreds of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian town of Huwara, and Israel Defense Forces head Herzi Halevi vowed to continue the investigations, The Times of Israel reported March 1. On Feb. 28, the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group Hamas called the attack on Huwara a "declaration of war" and said that "the settler here on the Gaza border must suffer."

The Israeli police had initially arrested eight people on the night of the riots but released them not long after. The Huwara attack was substantially larger than typical "price attacks" in the West Bank, where Israeli settlers retaliate against Palestinians by targeting property and homes. Hundreds of settlers destroyed property across the town of Huwara hours after a shooting attack killed two Israeli settlers.