Palestinian protesters block the roads and clash with Israeli border police during the funeral of Labeeb Dumaidi, 19 in the West Bank village of Hawara, near Nablus, Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. The teenager’s death, coming as tensions escalate during the Jewish holiday season, marked the latest incident a surge of Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
PUBLISHED: October 14, 2023
By JULIA FRANKEL and JOSEPH KRAUSS
JERUSALEM — While the world is focused on the war in Gaza, tensions have risen in the occupied West Bank, where 55 Palestinians were killed over the past week in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers. U.N. monitors said it was the deadliest week for Palestinians in the territory since at least 2005.
Since Hamas’ deadly mass incursion into southern Israel, in which militants killed over 1,300 people and captured around 150, Israeli forces have held the West Bank under a tight grip, closing crossings into the territory and checkpoints between cities, measures they say are aimed at preventing attacks.
Friday was a particularly deadly day, with 16 Palestinians killed in different incidents in the West Bank.
LATEST IN ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: Gaza’s desperate civilians flee or huddle in hopes of safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount
The military says it has arrested 220 people in raids across the West Bank, including 130 Hamas operatives, since last weekend’s attack. Hamas militants are present in the West Bank, but largely operate underground because of Israel’s tight grip on the territory.
The renewed crackdown comes as Israel is concerned about the conflict escalating into a multi-front war, particularly the possibility of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia also joining the battle.
But Palestinians say the latest Israeli measures in the West Bank have only further blurred the line between security forces and radical, violent settlers. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right settler with a long history of anti-Arab incitement, responded to the Hamas attack by distributing more weapons to the already well-armed settler population and tasking settlers with security.
In a statement earlier this week, he said his office is distributing 10,000 firearms, as well as combat gear, protective vests and helmets, to Israeli civilians — with a particular focus on residents of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
“We will change the world so that the settlements will be protected,” he said. “I have ordered the massive arming of the civilian standby units in order to protect the settlements and the cities.”
PUBLISHED: October 14, 2023
By JULIA FRANKEL and JOSEPH KRAUSS
JERUSALEM — While the world is focused on the war in Gaza, tensions have risen in the occupied West Bank, where 55 Palestinians were killed over the past week in clashes with Israeli troops, arrest raids and attacks by Jewish settlers. U.N. monitors said it was the deadliest week for Palestinians in the territory since at least 2005.
Since Hamas’ deadly mass incursion into southern Israel, in which militants killed over 1,300 people and captured around 150, Israeli forces have held the West Bank under a tight grip, closing crossings into the territory and checkpoints between cities, measures they say are aimed at preventing attacks.
Friday was a particularly deadly day, with 16 Palestinians killed in different incidents in the West Bank.
LATEST IN ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR: Gaza’s desperate civilians flee or huddle in hopes of safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount
The military says it has arrested 220 people in raids across the West Bank, including 130 Hamas operatives, since last weekend’s attack. Hamas militants are present in the West Bank, but largely operate underground because of Israel’s tight grip on the territory.
The renewed crackdown comes as Israel is concerned about the conflict escalating into a multi-front war, particularly the possibility of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia also joining the battle.
But Palestinians say the latest Israeli measures in the West Bank have only further blurred the line between security forces and radical, violent settlers. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right settler with a long history of anti-Arab incitement, responded to the Hamas attack by distributing more weapons to the already well-armed settler population and tasking settlers with security.
In a statement earlier this week, he said his office is distributing 10,000 firearms, as well as combat gear, protective vests and helmets, to Israeli civilians — with a particular focus on residents of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
“We will change the world so that the settlements will be protected,” he said. “I have ordered the massive arming of the civilian standby units in order to protect the settlements and the cities.”
RELATED ARTICLESGaza’s desperate civilians flee or huddle in hopes of safety, as warnings of Israeli offensive mount
On Friday, a video showed a settler with an assault rifle walking into the village of Al-Tuwani in the southern West Bank and shooting a Palestinian point blank.
Two days earlier, settlers shot dead three Palestinians in the village of Qusra, near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. On Thursday, settlers attacked their funeral, killing another two men, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Video footage showed the settlers swerving their cars into the funeral procession before stopping and opening fire.
On Thursday, settlers arrived at Wadi Seeq, a small Bedouin village home to around 200 people in the central West Bank, as Palestinians there packed up their belongings. They had already moved all of the women, children and livestock to a safer area in recent days because of rising threats, a resident of the village said. Witnesses said that the settlers opened fire, wounding three Palestinians and driving the rest out of the village.
Abdelrahman Kaabni, the head of the Wadi Seeq village council, said that soldiers and police had taken part in the attack, beating and arresting residents. As the villagers of Wadi Seeq fled settler violence, they left behind cisterns, livestock, solar panels and two vehicles. “The settlers took everything, and now they’re squatting in our homes,” Kaabni said.
Wadi Seeq is the sixth Bedouin village to have pulled up stakes in the last year in response to an uptick in settler attacks. Many more are in danger of being completely displaced, according to the West Bank Protection Consortium, a coalition of aid groups and donor countries, including the European Union, that support Palestinian communities.
Neither COGAT, the Israeli defense body responsible for civilian affairs, nor the Israeli military responded to requests for comment. In the past, authorities have said troops only open fire in response to threats or to disperse violent protests and that soldiers protect Palestinians from settler attacks.
The U.N. said last month that 1,100 Palestinians had been displaced by settler violence in the last year, an unprecedented figure. Over just the last few days, around 200 to 300 Palestinians have been displaced in Wadi Seeq and other areas, the consortium said — often by settlers who are armed.
“They’re leaving now because they feel completely unprotected. They’re so scared of those settlers who have come in and threatened them,” said Allegra Pacheco, who heads the consortium.
Most of the attacks come from settler outposts established without government authorization but protected by the Israeli army. Over 500,000 Jewish settlers live in nearly 150 settlements across the West Bank, which is home to some 2.5 million Palestinians. The international community overwhelmingly views settlements as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in the 1967 war. The Palestinians want the territories for their future state.
On Saturday, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari appeared to be calling on settlers to stand down, saying: “The responsibility for security in the settlements and on the roads lies with the army alone.”
But messages continued to circulate on WhatsApp groups that Jewish settlers have created since the start of the war to coordinate operations in the West Bank. A description of one chat group with over 800 participants told residents to prepare for “the possibility of mobilizing for a joint activity with the security forces for the immediate demolition of terrorist houses.”
The message urged residents to “eliminate” any Palestinian approaching a settlement.
“From the stories flowing in from the Gaza Strip, it is clear that we cannot rely on the army alone to be able to protect us in a time of chaos,” it read. “Are you ready for war?”
Israel is besieging the West Bank as it decimates Gaza
While the world's eyes are on Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has also put the entire West Bank on lockdown. We are living under siege.
BY BADIA DWAIK
While the world's eyes are on Israel's genocidal war in Gaza, Israel has also put the entire West Bank on lockdown. We are living under siege.
BY BADIA DWAIK
ISRAELI FORCES CLOSE THE NORTHERN ENTRANCE OF THE PALESTINIAN CITY OF HEBRON IN THE WEST BANK ON OCTOBER 8, 2023. (PHOTO: MAMOUN WAZWAZ/APA IMAGES)
While the genocidal war committed by the Israeli colonial state continues in Gaza with the most advanced American weapons and complicity of the West, in the West Bank, the Israeli occupation has us completely under siege.
The occupation has closed the exits and entrances to all cities in the West Bank and erected more barriers and cement cubes blocking passage between them. These cities have also been isolated from some of their surrounding villages and towns. In Hebron, where I am, three additional checkpoints have been added at the city’s northern entrance, and they are opened and closed without notice, and no one knows when they can travel.
This has affected the movement of goods entering the city and other areas, which led to a significant increase in the cost of all food products. This is also the case in all West Bank cities.
Imad Abu Shamsiya, one of the Palestinian residents who lives near the Tel Rumeida settlement in central Hebron, says that our conditions have become very difficult and dangerous:
We have not been allowed to leave our homes except for a very few hours since last Saturday, October 7, and we do not know whether entry or exit is permitted because there is no general notice. Suddenly, today, Saturday, it was only opened for half an hour, and what can we do within half an hour? Also, I received threatening messages against me because in 2016, I had filmed the deliberate killing of a young Palestinian man in cold blood by an Israeli soldier, so they’re are still threatening me with death.
The situation has become catastrophic for the families who live in the heart of Hebron, which has been besieged and closed by Israeli military orders for many years, and where these families have been turned into hostages inside their homes.
The Tel Rumeida area is known as a flashpoint due to repeated attacks by Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers against Palestinian families there. It is where you can find Shuhada Street, the street that used to be a central thoroughfare that connected northern Hebron to the southern part, but it has become completely closed off to Palestinians by the Israeli army and settlers and has long been considered emblematic of Israeli apartheid.
Haj Mufid Al-Sharbati lives there with his family and his brother’s family in front of the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadassah. They say that the situation is not only difficult but very terrifying. He tells me that they are forbidden from leaving our house and are only allowed to leave for a short time when they are allowed to leave. On Saturday, when they were allowed to leave, Al-Sharbati’s son and my daughter’s son-in-law were attacked. “As they headed to Tel Rumeida, our lives were in constant danger, and no one was protecting us,” he tells me.
Aref Jaber, who lives in the Jaber neighborhood near the largest Israeli settlement in the area, Kiryat Arba, tells me, “We live a life in which it is forbidden for us to move around, and no one leaves the house except for the utmost necessity.” Kayed, another resident of the Jaber neighborhood, told me his family has not left their house since last Saturday. “We have not seen international institutions such as the Red Cross that usually visit us,” he explained to me, “and my brother Ayman needs physical therapy massages because he suffered a stroke.”
As for Jamal Abu Saifan, who also lives right next to the Kiryat Arba colony, tells me his family lives in very difficult conditions and does not leave their homes due to the complete closure of the area. They have been allowed to leave the house once, for limited hours, since last Saturday. He also told me that he has relatives in Gaza who were martyred as a result of the bombing, as Abu Saifan’s family are originally refugees from historic Palestine, which was occupied in 1948. Currently, his family is spread across different areas in Palestine, including the Gaza Strip.
Umm, Muhammad Salaymeh, whose family lives in the Al-Salaymeh neighborhood near the Ibrahimi Mosque, where one of her sons is injured due to the recent events and aggression against Gaza, says the situation is difficult, and no one can move from their homes, “The military checkpoints are all closed, and my son needs to see a doctor, and we cannot leave the house even though… My son screams in pain,” she says.
I recently tried to take some foreign journalists to visit families in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street. The occupation soldiers would not allow them to enter the Shuhada Street military checkpoint and drew weapons on them, threatening to shoot at them if they did not leave the place. When we tried another checkpoint near my home above Tel Rumeida, that gate was closed as well, and the Israeli occupation soldiers at the checkpoint waved their hands for us to leave.
At the end of our day, I left them as they drove off to go to Jerusalem. About 15 minutes later, the journalists called me to tell me that the Israeli occupation soldiers had closed one of the newly erected gates between Hebron and the town of Halhul, and they had to return to spend the night in Hebron.
They were surprised that the new gate, which they had just passed a few minutes earlier, was now closed, and they asked me what alternate route they should take to return to Hebron. I told them the occupation had closed all the usual roads and added at least three new checkpoints. All Palestinian cities have been turned into prisons and cages, isolated from each other. We are under siege.
While the genocidal war committed by the Israeli colonial state continues in Gaza with the most advanced American weapons and complicity of the West, in the West Bank, the Israeli occupation has us completely under siege.
The occupation has closed the exits and entrances to all cities in the West Bank and erected more barriers and cement cubes blocking passage between them. These cities have also been isolated from some of their surrounding villages and towns. In Hebron, where I am, three additional checkpoints have been added at the city’s northern entrance, and they are opened and closed without notice, and no one knows when they can travel.
This has affected the movement of goods entering the city and other areas, which led to a significant increase in the cost of all food products. This is also the case in all West Bank cities.
Imad Abu Shamsiya, one of the Palestinian residents who lives near the Tel Rumeida settlement in central Hebron, says that our conditions have become very difficult and dangerous:
We have not been allowed to leave our homes except for a very few hours since last Saturday, October 7, and we do not know whether entry or exit is permitted because there is no general notice. Suddenly, today, Saturday, it was only opened for half an hour, and what can we do within half an hour? Also, I received threatening messages against me because in 2016, I had filmed the deliberate killing of a young Palestinian man in cold blood by an Israeli soldier, so they’re are still threatening me with death.
The situation has become catastrophic for the families who live in the heart of Hebron, which has been besieged and closed by Israeli military orders for many years, and where these families have been turned into hostages inside their homes.
The Tel Rumeida area is known as a flashpoint due to repeated attacks by Israeli occupation soldiers and settlers against Palestinian families there. It is where you can find Shuhada Street, the street that used to be a central thoroughfare that connected northern Hebron to the southern part, but it has become completely closed off to Palestinians by the Israeli army and settlers and has long been considered emblematic of Israeli apartheid.
Haj Mufid Al-Sharbati lives there with his family and his brother’s family in front of the Jewish settlement of Beit Hadassah. They say that the situation is not only difficult but very terrifying. He tells me that they are forbidden from leaving our house and are only allowed to leave for a short time when they are allowed to leave. On Saturday, when they were allowed to leave, Al-Sharbati’s son and my daughter’s son-in-law were attacked. “As they headed to Tel Rumeida, our lives were in constant danger, and no one was protecting us,” he tells me.
Aref Jaber, who lives in the Jaber neighborhood near the largest Israeli settlement in the area, Kiryat Arba, tells me, “We live a life in which it is forbidden for us to move around, and no one leaves the house except for the utmost necessity.” Kayed, another resident of the Jaber neighborhood, told me his family has not left their house since last Saturday. “We have not seen international institutions such as the Red Cross that usually visit us,” he explained to me, “and my brother Ayman needs physical therapy massages because he suffered a stroke.”
As for Jamal Abu Saifan, who also lives right next to the Kiryat Arba colony, tells me his family lives in very difficult conditions and does not leave their homes due to the complete closure of the area. They have been allowed to leave the house once, for limited hours, since last Saturday. He also told me that he has relatives in Gaza who were martyred as a result of the bombing, as Abu Saifan’s family are originally refugees from historic Palestine, which was occupied in 1948. Currently, his family is spread across different areas in Palestine, including the Gaza Strip.
Umm, Muhammad Salaymeh, whose family lives in the Al-Salaymeh neighborhood near the Ibrahimi Mosque, where one of her sons is injured due to the recent events and aggression against Gaza, says the situation is difficult, and no one can move from their homes, “The military checkpoints are all closed, and my son needs to see a doctor, and we cannot leave the house even though… My son screams in pain,” she says.
I recently tried to take some foreign journalists to visit families in Tel Rumeida and Shuhada Street. The occupation soldiers would not allow them to enter the Shuhada Street military checkpoint and drew weapons on them, threatening to shoot at them if they did not leave the place. When we tried another checkpoint near my home above Tel Rumeida, that gate was closed as well, and the Israeli occupation soldiers at the checkpoint waved their hands for us to leave.
At the end of our day, I left them as they drove off to go to Jerusalem. About 15 minutes later, the journalists called me to tell me that the Israeli occupation soldiers had closed one of the newly erected gates between Hebron and the town of Halhul, and they had to return to spend the night in Hebron.
They were surprised that the new gate, which they had just passed a few minutes earlier, was now closed, and they asked me what alternate route they should take to return to Hebron. I told them the occupation had closed all the usual roads and added at least three new checkpoints. All Palestinian cities have been turned into prisons and cages, isolated from each other. We are under siege.
Israel kills children in West Bank while eyes on Gaza
Tamara Nassar
Sixteen boys have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since 7 October. Defense for Children International-Palestine
Sixteen Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Israel’s genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip started on 7 October.
Defense for Children International - Palestine has been conducting field investigations of each case.
Palestinians in the West Bank have been holding demonstrations all week to protest Israel’s war against Gaza and show solidarity with the population of 2.3 million there.
Israeli fire killed more than 50 Palestinians there during the same period, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
It is within the context of these demonstrations that Israel is targeting Palestinians.
Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed Karam Ayman Dweikat, a 17-year-old boy in Beita village, south of Nablus city, on Sunday.
An Israeli soldier shot Karam from a distance of 30 to 50 meters as Israeli forces protected and accompanied settlers invading the Jabal al-Arma area, where settlers have also repeatedly attempted to establish an outpost.
Karam was with other Palestinian youth who arrived to confront settlers and soldiers invading their land and attempting to intimidate Palestinians there.
Footage depicting the moment Israeli forces shot Karam suggests that he “did not present any threat to life or serious injury when he was targeted by Israeli forces,” DCIP said.
Israeli forces fired “intensively and indiscriminately” at Palestinians demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza in Beit Furik, east of Nablus, on 13 October.
An Israeli bullet struck 13-year-old Amir Rafat Mlaitat in the head, killing him. He was 150 meters away.
Israeli forces shot a 17-year-old boy in the head and chest in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on 13 October, killing him, DCIP reported.
Muhammad Taher Ali Mustafa was standing less than 100 meters from members of the Israeli Border Police – a paramilitary force – during confrontations when they shot him.
In the same neighborhood, another 17-year-old boy was found with a gunshot wound in his chest.
Laith Osama Abu Mara had spoken to his father on the phone and indicated he was with friends near the entrance of Issawiya. The boy was found wounded half an hour later and transferred to hospital.
An Israeli sniper likely shot Laith from a distance of 50 to 100 meters, doctors told DCIP.
“Muhammad Taher Ali Mustafa’s funeral had just finished when Laith’s death was announced,” DCIP said.
Another boy was found dead in the same evening with a gunshot wound to the back of his head in Beit Liqya village near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Hussein Mutaz Mousa, 16, participated in a march protesting Israel’s war on Gaza with youth in the village following Friday prayers.
Palestinian youth “allegedly threw stones toward the soldiers,” DCIP said. Hussein did not come home after the demonstration and his family was told that he had left alone.
His parents discovered his body after hours of searching.
“War crimes on a whim”
Israeli occupation forces shot a 17-year-old boy in the head in al-Ram, a town just east of Jerusalem, on the same evening. Ayham Iyad Jabarin was 150 meters away from Israeli forces when they shot him.
There had been a demonstration at al-Ram, where Palestinian residents set fires near the entrance of the town in a confrontation with Israeli occupation forces.
The next day, Israeli forces fired live ammunition throughout the afternoon and evening at Palestinians in the city of Tulkarm demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians were confronting Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Israel’s apartheid wall in the West Bank.
Rafat Thaer Abu Mhana was sitting in the passenger seat in a car near the checkpoint, when Israeli forces opened fire at the car from 150 meters away.
According to DCIP, an Israeli bullet struck the 17-year-old boy in the head, “expelling brain matter.” Israeli soldiers shot him in the back as well.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in the city. Three others in the car were injured and transferred to hospital as well.
On the afternoon of 13 October, Israeli forces shot 14-year-old Omar Ahmad Asmar in Zeita near Tulkarm in the northern West Bank.
Omar was participating in a march heading towards the Israeli apartheid wall. Israeli forces opened fire from a distance of 100 meters, striking him in the thigh.
He was hospitalized and pronounced dead the next day.
A 16-year-old boy that Israeli occupation forces shot on 10 October succumbed to his wounds on 14 October.
Muhammad Rafat Edwan had been at a demonstration in Faroun, near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, where youth were approaching Israel’s apartheid wall and throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers there.
Israeli forces opened fire at Muhammad from a distance of 150-200 meters, shooting him in the right shoulder. The bullet had caused severe bleeding in his lung, where it settled, and “bullet fragments had penetrated his spinal cord in his neck, causing him to become paralyzed from the neck down.”
Doctors were unable to stop the bleeding and he was pronounced dead on 14 October.
“Israeli forces know no bounds and are empowered to shoot to kill Palestinians, including children, and now, as a matter of routine, unlawfully shoot and kill Palestinian children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP’s accountability program director.
“Israeli forces and settlers are emboldened by systemic impunity and international support to commit war crimes on a whim.”
In the Gaza Strip, more than 700 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October.
That is an average of 100 Palestinian children per day.
Tamara Nassar
ELECTRONIC INFATADA
15 October 2023
Sixteen boys have been killed by Israeli fire in the occupied West Bank since 7 October. Defense for Children International-Palestine
Sixteen Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Israel’s genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip started on 7 October.
Defense for Children International - Palestine has been conducting field investigations of each case.
Palestinians in the West Bank have been holding demonstrations all week to protest Israel’s war against Gaza and show solidarity with the population of 2.3 million there.
Israeli fire killed more than 50 Palestinians there during the same period, according to the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry.
It is within the context of these demonstrations that Israel is targeting Palestinians.
Israeli occupation soldiers shot and killed Karam Ayman Dweikat, a 17-year-old boy in Beita village, south of Nablus city, on Sunday.
An Israeli soldier shot Karam from a distance of 30 to 50 meters as Israeli forces protected and accompanied settlers invading the Jabal al-Arma area, where settlers have also repeatedly attempted to establish an outpost.
Karam was with other Palestinian youth who arrived to confront settlers and soldiers invading their land and attempting to intimidate Palestinians there.
Footage depicting the moment Israeli forces shot Karam suggests that he “did not present any threat to life or serious injury when he was targeted by Israeli forces,” DCIP said.
Israeli forces fired “intensively and indiscriminately” at Palestinians demonstrating in solidarity with Gaza in Beit Furik, east of Nablus, on 13 October.
An Israeli bullet struck 13-year-old Amir Rafat Mlaitat in the head, killing him. He was 150 meters away.
Israeli forces shot a 17-year-old boy in the head and chest in the occupied East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya on 13 October, killing him, DCIP reported.
Muhammad Taher Ali Mustafa was standing less than 100 meters from members of the Israeli Border Police – a paramilitary force – during confrontations when they shot him.
In the same neighborhood, another 17-year-old boy was found with a gunshot wound in his chest.
Laith Osama Abu Mara had spoken to his father on the phone and indicated he was with friends near the entrance of Issawiya. The boy was found wounded half an hour later and transferred to hospital.
An Israeli sniper likely shot Laith from a distance of 50 to 100 meters, doctors told DCIP.
“Muhammad Taher Ali Mustafa’s funeral had just finished when Laith’s death was announced,” DCIP said.
Another boy was found dead in the same evening with a gunshot wound to the back of his head in Beit Liqya village near Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
Hussein Mutaz Mousa, 16, participated in a march protesting Israel’s war on Gaza with youth in the village following Friday prayers.
Palestinian youth “allegedly threw stones toward the soldiers,” DCIP said. Hussein did not come home after the demonstration and his family was told that he had left alone.
His parents discovered his body after hours of searching.
“War crimes on a whim”
Israeli occupation forces shot a 17-year-old boy in the head in al-Ram, a town just east of Jerusalem, on the same evening. Ayham Iyad Jabarin was 150 meters away from Israeli forces when they shot him.
There had been a demonstration at al-Ram, where Palestinian residents set fires near the entrance of the town in a confrontation with Israeli occupation forces.
The next day, Israeli forces fired live ammunition throughout the afternoon and evening at Palestinians in the city of Tulkarm demonstrating in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Palestinians were confronting Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near Israel’s apartheid wall in the West Bank.
Rafat Thaer Abu Mhana was sitting in the passenger seat in a car near the checkpoint, when Israeli forces opened fire at the car from 150 meters away.
According to DCIP, an Israeli bullet struck the 17-year-old boy in the head, “expelling brain matter.” Israeli soldiers shot him in the back as well.
He was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital in the city. Three others in the car were injured and transferred to hospital as well.
On the afternoon of 13 October, Israeli forces shot 14-year-old Omar Ahmad Asmar in Zeita near Tulkarm in the northern West Bank.
Omar was participating in a march heading towards the Israeli apartheid wall. Israeli forces opened fire from a distance of 100 meters, striking him in the thigh.
He was hospitalized and pronounced dead the next day.
A 16-year-old boy that Israeli occupation forces shot on 10 October succumbed to his wounds on 14 October.
Muhammad Rafat Edwan had been at a demonstration in Faroun, near Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, where youth were approaching Israel’s apartheid wall and throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers there.
Israeli forces opened fire at Muhammad from a distance of 150-200 meters, shooting him in the right shoulder. The bullet had caused severe bleeding in his lung, where it settled, and “bullet fragments had penetrated his spinal cord in his neck, causing him to become paralyzed from the neck down.”
Doctors were unable to stop the bleeding and he was pronounced dead on 14 October.
“Israeli forces know no bounds and are empowered to shoot to kill Palestinians, including children, and now, as a matter of routine, unlawfully shoot and kill Palestinian children,” said Ayed Abu Eqtaish, DCIP’s accountability program director.
“Israeli forces and settlers are emboldened by systemic impunity and international support to commit war crimes on a whim.”
In the Gaza Strip, more than 700 Palestinian children have been killed in Israeli strikes since 7 October.
That is an average of 100 Palestinian children per day.
Israeli army and settler attacks against Palestinians in West Bank increase
At least 55 Palestinians have been killed since last Saturday, and more than 1,100 others wounded.
By Ayman Nobani
Published On 14 Oct 2023
As Israel continues to pummel the Gaza Strip from the sky, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are gripped with tension and have reported an increase of attacks against them by settlers and soldiers alike.
Since last Saturday, at least 55 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,100 others wounded.
According to human rights activist Samir Abu Shams, the Israeli army is in violation of multiple international laws, particularly the Geneva Conventions, which stress that civilians should be unharmed in situations of war and armed conflict.
“What we are seeing today is that the occupation forces enter civilian areas, create friction, and target civilians with gunfire without any justification,” the 60-year-old from Tulkarem said. “Most of the cases of Israeli gunfire have been against Palestinian civilians passing through the street or going to their place of work.”
On the one hand, Abu Shams went on to say, the Israeli occupation isolates the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
“On the other, it takes revenge on civilians in the occupied West Bank and takes measures to arm settlers and gives instructions to open fire on men, women, and children,” he said.
Israeli army shooting at Palestinian civilian cars
On Friday, Karem al-Jallad was driving home from Tulkarem’s vegetable market to his home in the southern district of the city at about 8:20pm (17:30 GMT). He was on the street near the Jewish settlement of Gishuri, which connects the west of Tulkarem to its south.
Israeli soldiers fired at his car and al-Jallad, thinking it was sound bombs, kept driving. But he was hit three times by live ammunition: in the chest, hand, and shoulder.
“There were five bullets on the front of Karem’s car,” his cousin Alaa al-Jallad said to Al Jazeera.
“Karem kept driving on the road until he reached the al-Safir roundabout, and from there he was transferred by ambulance to the local hospital,” he said.
Karem’s brother Ammar said he is undergoing a second operation.
“Yesterday evening, the doctors took out the bullet that hit him in the shoulder and settled in the neck,” Ammar said. “The second bullet caused a fracture and tear in the tendons, according to the doctors.”
Ahmed Zahran of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Tulkarem told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers shot at four civilian cars in the same area on Friday, killing one Palestinian and injuring seven others. A second Palestinian, 16, was shot on Friday and died the next day from his injuries.
“We headed there in our ambulance and saw a white Hyundai car that was shot at,” Zahran said. “The four passengers were all injured, all in serious condition.”
His team transferred three of the wounded, and when they went back for the fourth Palestinian, the Israeli army targeted the medics and ambulance.
“We continued our work quickly, and at the same time we received a report of gunfire at another car about 30 metres (98 feet) away from us,” Zahran said. “After identifying it, we found no casualties, only an empty car in the middle of the street, with no one in it.”
They found Karem on the roundabout, and after transferring him to the hospital, they received another call that two other Palestinians were shot and injured while driving in their car as they passed by the settlement.
Settler attack
On Thursday evening, Randa Ajaj was in the car with her son Ismail and husband, who was driving back to Ramallah from the village of Yabrud.
“At one of the checkpoints, a Jewish settler opened fire in the air,” Ismail, 19, said. “We thought it was the soldiers so my father slowed down, but when we saw it was settlers with flashlights and guns, who tried to attack our car, my dad sped away.”
The settlers opened fire. The first bullet hit Ismail in the foot then landed in his mother’s body, where her kidney is.
Randa, a mother of seven, had a few years earlier donated one of her kidneys to her brother.
A second bullet penetrated Ismail’s shoulder, after shattering the back window.
Thinking Randa was just injured, the father continued driving and made it to a medical centre in the village of Silwad. From there, an ambulance took them to Ramallah Hospital.
“We thought she had fainted from fear because there were no traces of blood, but it turned out to be an explosive bullet that had penetrated my foot and landed in my mother,” Ismail said, his voice breaking. “We didn’t know that she had been killed.”
Ismail couldn’t continue the interview. He keeps watching videos of his mother’s funeral on his phone since he couldn’t attend, as he was in the hospital.
“She was loved by everyone,” her brother Abdullah said.
Danger on the roads for Palestinian drivers
Taxi drivers working on the Nablus-Ramallah line have also lessened their movements, citing checkpoint closures and an increase in settler attacks.
“There were 112 cars on the Nablus-Ramallah line before the war, and now there are only 25 cars driven by those from villages,” Nael Dweikat, a 51-year-old driver, said.
“Most of the entrances to the Palestinian villages on this route are closed with dirt barriers, as people generally do not go out in their cars because of the increased danger unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Dweikat said that drivers have to take an alternative route to leave Nablus instead of the main road, which is 45 minutes longer.
“On Thursday, I was exposed to great danger during the funeral of the four Palestinians killed in the village of Qasra,” he said. “By chance, I was at the al-Sawiya village junction at the same time as the funeral procession.”
The settlers closed the road and attacked the procession, killing Ibrahim Al-Wadi and his son Ahmed. The road was completely closed for two hours.
“I feel afraid and my nerves are high while travelling because the roads are not safe and the settlers block and attack Palestinian cars with stones at many intersections within the West Bank,” Dweikat said. “Sometimes it takes some drivers five hours to get from one governorate to another.”
For Abu Shams, the human rights activist, this is all part of a calculated Israeli plan to pressure and cause a displacement of the Palestinian population whether in the occupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
“It is not a hidden agenda,” he said. “The Israel far-right ministers have announced more than once that they want a land without Palestinian residents, and they promised their voters, as part of their electoral campaigns, to implement that.”
“In short, they want to implement a third Nakba by spreading chaos and disrupting Palestinian institutions in more than one place, especially those that provide services to society.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
At least 55 Palestinians have been killed since last Saturday, and more than 1,100 others wounded.
Palestinians take part in a protest following Israeli attacks on Gaza, in Nablus, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, on October 13, 2023
[Raneen Sawafta/Reuters]
By Ayman Nobani
Published On 14 Oct 2023
As Israel continues to pummel the Gaza Strip from the sky, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are gripped with tension and have reported an increase of attacks against them by settlers and soldiers alike.
Since last Saturday, at least 55 Palestinians have been killed and more than 1,100 others wounded.
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According to human rights activist Samir Abu Shams, the Israeli army is in violation of multiple international laws, particularly the Geneva Conventions, which stress that civilians should be unharmed in situations of war and armed conflict.
“What we are seeing today is that the occupation forces enter civilian areas, create friction, and target civilians with gunfire without any justification,” the 60-year-old from Tulkarem said. “Most of the cases of Israeli gunfire have been against Palestinian civilians passing through the street or going to their place of work.”
On the one hand, Abu Shams went on to say, the Israeli occupation isolates the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
“On the other, it takes revenge on civilians in the occupied West Bank and takes measures to arm settlers and gives instructions to open fire on men, women, and children,” he said.
Israeli army shooting at Palestinian civilian cars
On Friday, Karem al-Jallad was driving home from Tulkarem’s vegetable market to his home in the southern district of the city at about 8:20pm (17:30 GMT). He was on the street near the Jewish settlement of Gishuri, which connects the west of Tulkarem to its south.
Israeli soldiers fired at his car and al-Jallad, thinking it was sound bombs, kept driving. But he was hit three times by live ammunition: in the chest, hand, and shoulder.
“There were five bullets on the front of Karem’s car,” his cousin Alaa al-Jallad said to Al Jazeera.
“Karem kept driving on the road until he reached the al-Safir roundabout, and from there he was transferred by ambulance to the local hospital,” he said.
Karem’s brother Ammar said he is undergoing a second operation.
“Yesterday evening, the doctors took out the bullet that hit him in the shoulder and settled in the neck,” Ammar said. “The second bullet caused a fracture and tear in the tendons, according to the doctors.”
Ahmed Zahran of the Palestine Red Crescent Society in Tulkarem told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers shot at four civilian cars in the same area on Friday, killing one Palestinian and injuring seven others. A second Palestinian, 16, was shot on Friday and died the next day from his injuries.
“We headed there in our ambulance and saw a white Hyundai car that was shot at,” Zahran said. “The four passengers were all injured, all in serious condition.”
His team transferred three of the wounded, and when they went back for the fourth Palestinian, the Israeli army targeted the medics and ambulance.
“We continued our work quickly, and at the same time we received a report of gunfire at another car about 30 metres (98 feet) away from us,” Zahran said. “After identifying it, we found no casualties, only an empty car in the middle of the street, with no one in it.”
They found Karem on the roundabout, and after transferring him to the hospital, they received another call that two other Palestinians were shot and injured while driving in their car as they passed by the settlement.
Settler attack
On Thursday evening, Randa Ajaj was in the car with her son Ismail and husband, who was driving back to Ramallah from the village of Yabrud.
“At one of the checkpoints, a Jewish settler opened fire in the air,” Ismail, 19, said. “We thought it was the soldiers so my father slowed down, but when we saw it was settlers with flashlights and guns, who tried to attack our car, my dad sped away.”
The settlers opened fire. The first bullet hit Ismail in the foot then landed in his mother’s body, where her kidney is.
Randa, a mother of seven, had a few years earlier donated one of her kidneys to her brother.
A second bullet penetrated Ismail’s shoulder, after shattering the back window.
Thinking Randa was just injured, the father continued driving and made it to a medical centre in the village of Silwad. From there, an ambulance took them to Ramallah Hospital.
“We thought she had fainted from fear because there were no traces of blood, but it turned out to be an explosive bullet that had penetrated my foot and landed in my mother,” Ismail said, his voice breaking. “We didn’t know that she had been killed.”
Ismail couldn’t continue the interview. He keeps watching videos of his mother’s funeral on his phone since he couldn’t attend, as he was in the hospital.
“She was loved by everyone,” her brother Abdullah said.
Danger on the roads for Palestinian drivers
Taxi drivers working on the Nablus-Ramallah line have also lessened their movements, citing checkpoint closures and an increase in settler attacks.
“There were 112 cars on the Nablus-Ramallah line before the war, and now there are only 25 cars driven by those from villages,” Nael Dweikat, a 51-year-old driver, said.
“Most of the entrances to the Palestinian villages on this route are closed with dirt barriers, as people generally do not go out in their cars because of the increased danger unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Dweikat said that drivers have to take an alternative route to leave Nablus instead of the main road, which is 45 minutes longer.
“On Thursday, I was exposed to great danger during the funeral of the four Palestinians killed in the village of Qasra,” he said. “By chance, I was at the al-Sawiya village junction at the same time as the funeral procession.”
The settlers closed the road and attacked the procession, killing Ibrahim Al-Wadi and his son Ahmed. The road was completely closed for two hours.
“I feel afraid and my nerves are high while travelling because the roads are not safe and the settlers block and attack Palestinian cars with stones at many intersections within the West Bank,” Dweikat said. “Sometimes it takes some drivers five hours to get from one governorate to another.”
For Abu Shams, the human rights activist, this is all part of a calculated Israeli plan to pressure and cause a displacement of the Palestinian population whether in the occupied West Bank or the Gaza Strip.
“It is not a hidden agenda,” he said. “The Israel far-right ministers have announced more than once that they want a land without Palestinian residents, and they promised their voters, as part of their electoral campaigns, to implement that.”
“In short, they want to implement a third Nakba by spreading chaos and disrupting Palestinian institutions in more than one place, especially those that provide services to society.”
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
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