WHILE THE WORLD focuses on the Hamas massacre in Israel and Israel’s bombing of Gaza, settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of the chaos to attack and expel Palestinians from small villages.
Settlers — Israeli Jews living in the occupied West Bank — and soldiers have killed 51 Palestinians in the West Bank since Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. At least two villages, Al-Qanub and Wadi Al-Sik, have been entirely depopulated as a result of the violence by Israeli settlers.
A Palestinian in At-Tuwani, a village in the Masafer Yatta area, is in critical condition after a settler, accompanied by a single Israeli soldier, invaded the community on Friday and shot him at point-blank range. The attack was documented by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Israeli soldiers are establishing new checkpoints to block the movement of Palestinian villagers. On Thursday evening, near Yabrud, northeast of Ramallah, solders shot at a vehicle carrying a Palestinian family, according to members of the family. Randa Abdullah Abdul Aziz Ajaj, 37, was killed, and her son, Ismail Ajaj, was hit in the foot and shoulder. Her husband and another child were also in the vehicle but were not injured. An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson said soldiers opened fire because the car was “driving wildly” and the soldiers felt threatened.
Throughout the West Bank, Palestinian residents are witnessing an increased presence of armed settlers around their villages, more military roadblocks, and tightened movement restrictions. “At this time we are actually living under siege. Most of the villages in the West Bank are closed in mounds of dirt and it is impossible to get out,” said a resident of the village of Qaryut. “There are settlers everywhere. Every time we approach houses near a settlement, they shoot at us. They are taking advantage of the security situation in Gaza, to take revenge on the West Bank. Because no one is looking at the West Bank now.”
On Wednesday, in the village of Qusra near Nablus, three Palestinians — Moa’th Odeh, Musab Abu Rida, and Obida Abu Sarur — were shot dead, while a 6-year-old girl was wounded in the upper body. It is unclear who opened fire on them. The attack began with masked settlers shooting at houses in the village, according to three eyewitnesses and medical personnel who treated the wounded at the scene. Video footage shows six masked men, armed with pistols and M-16 rifles, opening fire inside the village. Later that day, according to eyewitnesses, another resident, 13-year-old Hassan Abu Sarur, was also shot dead when soldiers entered after the settlers withdrew from the village.
