ZIONIST OCCUPIERS WANTON MURDERS
Gaza conflict spills into the West Bank as settler attacks and clashes leave dozens of Palestinians dead

Zeena Saifi, Becky Anderson and Kareem Khadder, CNN
Wed, October 18, 2023 at 10:21 PM MDT·8 min read


Ibrahim Wadi, 62, and his son Ahmad, 24, were on their way to a funeral for four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli settlers in their occupied West Bank community, when their car came under attack.

The father and son were driving through the small village of Qusra, just south of Nablus, which has become a focal point of violence over recent days, when they themselves were fired upon by armed settlers on Thursday. Family members told CNN that the men were transferred to a nearby hospital and died of their wounds soon after.

They are among at least 61 people, including children, to be killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when Hamas launched its unprecedented, surprise assault on Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health there. More than 1,250 have been injured.

Hamas’ attack has left more than 1,400 people dead in Israel, mostly civilian, with at least 199 believed to be held hostage inside Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel announced a “complete siege” of the enclave in response, carrying out widespread airstrikes across the Gaza Strip that left at least 3,478 people dead and threatening a ground invasion, according to the health ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas. Meanwhile, tensions are mounting in the West Bank, where Palestinians have been killed in confrontations with both Israeli forces and settlers.

Hani Odeh, Qusra's mayor, was also going to the funeral and witnessed settlers in a street where Ahmad and Ibrahim were killed. - CNN

Hani Odeh, Qusra’s mayor, told CNN that settlers roam freely in the village under the protection of Israeli police. He said he had informed a member of COGAT, Israel’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, that he was going to attend the funeral, along with Ahmad and Ibrahim.

A few hours beforehand, the Israeli official told him to take a different route than the one they would usually take, to avoid settlers in the area. But to Odeh’s surprise, the road to which they were diverted was filled with settlers, who eventually shot and killed Ahmad and Ibrahim in their car.

Odeh told CNN he watched the attack happen from his own vehicle while Israeli soldiers patrolled the street. He went up to one officer, urging him to disperse the settlers, but no one did anything. He said it felt like a trap.

CNN reached out to COGAT and the IDF for comment on Odeh’s claims but have yet to receive a response.

Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, the Israeli military’s spokesperson, said last week that the military was on high alert in the occupied territory, adding it was preparing to thwart any potential attacks. “Anyone who challenges us in Judea and Samaria will be met with huge force,” Hagari said, using the Jewish biblical names for the West Bank.
A surge of attacks

CNN spoke with residents in the West Bank who say they are fearful of a wave of violence from the Israeli military and security forces, as well as revenge attacks by the estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the area. The latest killings come against the backdrop of a year in which the West Bank has seen a surge in settler attacks, including one that an Israeli military commander called a “pogrom.”

Even before the war with Hamas, the West Bank had been boiling. Following a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, Israel launched regular incursions and raids into the West Bank targeting what they said were militant strongholds. The resulting violence left a record number of both Palestinians and Israelis dead, numbers not seen in at least a decade.

Days after the deadly violence in Qusra, home to around 7,000 people, residents are still reeling. Photographs commemorating the six people who were killed plaster the walls of homes and buildings. A bleak emptiness fills the air.

Armed settlers attacked an apartment building on October 11, killing four people. - CNN

Torched cars, broken water pumps and ransacked electricity lines surround an apartment building on the edge of the village where the first four killings took place. Inside the floor is littered with glass, and bullet marks scar the walls.

Armed settlers attacked the building on October 11, triggering calls for help from residents. When several neighbors arrived at the scene, the settlers opened fire and four people were shot dead: Musa’ab Abu Raidi, 19, Obaida Abu Srour, 18, Hassan Muhannad, 22, and Moath Odesa, 29.

Inside the apartment building, Rabeea, 19, and her brother, Abdulrahman, 12, watched with horror as the attack unfolded. The siblings, who asked that CNN not use their last name for fear of reprisals from Israeli settlers, recounted how settlers lobbed rocks and fired at the building as they hid inside with their mother.

Abdulrahman, 12, lost his father seven years ago when he was shot dead by Israeli settlers near Nablus. - CNN

Their older brother and his 6-year-old daughter were injured and receiving treatment at a hospital nearby. Odeh, the mayor, told CNN that they were among 12 people to be hospitalized after the attack.

Rabeea said her brother can’t sleep at night; he’s too scared to be alone. CNN met the family as they were packing up their things and getting ready to move to another village.

“I feel so bad. I want to cry but, what can we do?” she said. “I want to stay here but we can’t do anything.”

They’ve been here before. Seven years ago, Rabeea and Abdulrahman said their father was shot dead by Israeli settlers near Nablus. The fear of being attacked forced their family to pick up and move to Qusra. Now, too scared to stay, they are being driven from their home again.

Since Israel took control and occupied the West Bank in 1967 from Jordan following the six-day war, the territory, which residents hope will form part of a future Palestinian state, has been settled by Israeli civilians, often under military protection.

Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law, but despite this successive Israeli governments have pledged support for them. Israel views the West Bank as “disputed territory,” and contends its settlement policy is legal.

This year, following the election of the most right-wing, extremist government in Israeli history under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank flared.

As of mid-September this year, the United Nations had reported 798 settler-related incidents in the occupied territory, leading to 216 Palestinians injured. In the same period, Israeli forces killed 179 Palestinians in the West Bank.

The IDF says most are terror suspects or people engaging violently with its troops during raids, but does not offer evidence in every case for this assertion.

Settlers have long been accused of carrying out acts of violence against Palestinians. As well as killings, these attacks have included incidents of physical assault, property damage and harassment.

Odeh insisted their aim is to drive Palestinians from their home and ultimately from the occupied West Bank.
Record housing approvals

This year, in the wake of international criticism, Netanyahu instructed Jewish settlers not to grab land in the West Bank without the Israeli government’s permission. But under his leadership, Israel has approved a record number of housing units in West Bank settlements.

Members of his far-right government, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are themselves settlers, have been accused of inciting violence against Palestinians since taking power.

In the wake of Hamas’ attack on October 7, Palestinians are being subjected to tight restrictions on movement within the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel, with Israeli military forces imposing a full closure of checkpoints and roadblocks, according to several residents who spoke to CNN.

Palestinians living in the West Bank told CNN the closure has significantly impacted their daily lives, restricting their ability to travel for work, school, medical treatment and other essential activities.

In a call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas demanded an end to settler attacks against people in Palestinian cities, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, while stressing the need to stop the killing of civilians on both sides.

The wives, daughters, and sisters of Ahmad and Ibrahim Wadi told CNN's Becky Anderson they would continue to defend their land. - CNN

At the home of Ibrahim and Ahmad, who lived a short drive away from the apartment building that was attacked in Qusra, and in full view of an encroaching Israeli settlement, their family – wives, daughters, and sisters – were in mourning on Sunday.

“Thank God, we are strong. And God willing, we will continue to have strength and patience,” Khitam Wadi, Ibrahim’s wife and Ahmad’s mother, told CNN.

“My husband loved his land. He defended his land. And we will continue to do the same so long as we are alive,” she added.

Evidently shaken, Khitam found it hard to describe her grief. But the younger women in the family, while in pain, were adamant on standing their ground.

Aseel Wadi's father and brother were killed by Israeli settlers as they drove to a funeral for Palestinians killed in their West Bank community. - CNN

“I’m sad, of course. This all affects me, but not to the extent that it weakens me. We’ve been experiencing the same thing our entire lives, nothing has changed,” Aseel, Ahmad’s sister and Ibrahim’s daughter, said.

“This is our home. My dad taught me to love my land. I will teach my kids the same. And I will stay for as long as I live.”

CNN’s Abeer Salman and Celine Alkhaldi contributed to this report.

Anger against Israel threatens to boil over in increasingly violent West Bank

Nataliya Vasilyeva
Thu, October 19, 2023 

At least 75 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or Israeli settlers in the West Bank since Hamas’s attack

Eight-year-old Jad wears a pendant with a photo of three young men. One of them, his favourite uncle Ahmad, was shot dead by Israeli settlers in the West Bank last week when they attacked a funeral procession.

Ahmad Wadi, 25, and his 62-year-old father, Ibrahim, were victims of an escalating spiral of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The rising hostilities have gone largely unnoticed as Israel unleashed a war on Hamas in response to a deadly cross-border raid from Gaza into southern Israel on Oct 7. But the anger here in the West Bank risks growing into a second – or third – front of a wider conflict in and around Israel.

Jad, 8, wears a pendant with a photo of three men, one of whom, his uncle Ahmad, was shot dead last week by Israeli settlers - Heathcliff O'Malley

At least 75 Palestinians have been killed by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) or Israeli settlers since Hamas’s attack, which is already the highest monthly death toll in the West Bank since the UN began keeping records in 2005.

On Thursday alone, six Palestinians, including a 17-year-old boy, were killed in clashes with the IDF and a rare air strike on the West Bank.

Ahmad and Ibrahim Wadi died last Thursday when they were shot by Israeli settlers who opened fire on a funeral procession they took part in.

Sitting in his living room over a plate of dates and cardamom-infused tea, Sayed Wadi on Thursday spoke of his uncle Ibrahim as a man highly respected in the community who would often act as a mediator between feuding families.

The father and son last Thursday morning went to a hospital in the nearby town of Salfit to collect the bodies of four distant relatives who had been shot dead by Israeli settlers in an altercation the day before.

“Everyone initially wanted to take part in the funeral but it was Ibrahim who told people at the hospital to stay back to avoid confrontation with the IDF,” Mr Wadi told The Telegraph.

The party consisted of four vehicles, including two ambulances. But with the Israeli army having put up roadblocks and severely restricted movement in the West Bank since the Gaza war started, the funeral procession had to turn into a back road where IDF soldiers told everyone to get out of their vehicles.

It was an ambush. Hardline Israeli settlers came out to pelt stones at the car. The father and son were shot and killed when they went to check the ambulance.

Mr Wadi is convinced that was a pre-planned attack: “I’m sure the settlers targeted him [Ibrahim Wadi]. He was known locally for his position against confiscation of property and land.”

Sayed Wadi believes the attack on his relatives was an ambush - Heathcliff O'Malley

One of the ambulance drivers told the Haaretz newspaper “the settlers were waiting there – they started firing on us and other people who had come for the funeral.”

Palestine’s WAFA news agency said both IDF soldiers and settlers opened fire. The IDF said it was investigating the incident.

Asked about the spiralling violence in the West Bank, Jonathan Cornicus, an IDF spokesman, said on Sky News: “Israel has for years been very restrained in its use of force.”

“We are aware of the intentions of Palestenians in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) to copy or emulate the same type of attacks that Hamas did in the communities around the Gaza Strip,” he said. “We’re on high alert. There’s no room for nonsense.”

The past year has seen increasing levels of violence by young settlers, who started to raid Palestinian villages or attack farmers in the fields. The attackers are rarely arrested, and reports of prosecution are even rarer.

Mr Wadi said the violence spiked under Israel’s pre-war government which included hardline Right-wing figures, some of whom publicly backed a rapid expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank. They are widely considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

“Previously, settlers were not armed: with the new government, you see that even the IDF needs protection from them,” said Mr Wadi, who on Thursday sat in his living room in Ramallah underneath a poster with photographs of Ibrahim and Ahmad and “Martyrs” written on the top.

Although the West Bank has been spared the devastating airstrikes Israel unleashed on Gaza in the past two weeks, life there has been disrupted in multiple ways.

Ramallah is unsettled and quiet, with its residents fearing an escalation in violence - Heathcliff O'Malley

Students and employees have been unable to report for duty or study, fearing violence or settlers or checkpoints. Since the start of the war, Israel has barred Palestinians, except for residents of East Jerusalem, from entering Israel, even if they were passing from one part of the West Bank to another.

Ali, a 42-year-old construction engineer from the town of Beit Jala, just south of Jerusalem, has not been able to get to his work at a construction site in Hebron, further south, since Oct 7.

“I preferred to stay home and not to go to work because the Bethlehem governorate is completely cut off from the rest of the West Bank, and I’d need to take the risk to go to work and might get attacked or shot by the IDF.”

Off Ramallah’s main Al-Manarah square, business at the numerous gold jewellery stores was sluggish.

“We have very few shoppers because everything is on hold: people are postponing weddings, celebrations: no one is in a mood to celebrate,” an employee who asked to be unnamed, fearing violence from both sides, told The Telegraph.

“No one feels safe. We know that the IDF can come in and storm Ramallah if they wanted to.”

Young men in the West Bank. 'People are outraged and feel very sad about what’s happening in Gaza,' said one - Heathcliff O'Malley

Many felt reluctant to speak out publicly about their grief over the mounting casualties in Gaza after Israel made several arrests over social media posts supporting Gaza, including that of Dala Abu Amna, a singer and social media influencer.

Hamas on Thursday called on Palestinians in the West Bank to “continue to mobilise” and “surprise the occupation forces with all possible means of resistance”.

On Ramallah’s main square, with a roundabout adorned with statues of three lions, people were gathering on Thursday afternoon for an improvised protest. Three young women in black abaya dresses and traditional Palestinian kufiya scarves draped on their shoulders looked on, while a few young men in the middle of a roundabout waited for a sign for the protest to kick off.

Melik Khattab, 18, whose broad smile revealed his dental braces, admitted that his parents were worried and wanted him to stay indoors to avoid trouble. But Mr Khattab said he was ready to confront and hurl stones at both the IDF and the Palestinian Administration’s security forces.

“People are outraged and feel very sad about what’s happening in Gaza,” he said.


West Bank a possible 'third front' for Israel

Ali Sawafta and John Davison
Thu, October 19, 2023 



Funeral of a Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces, near Ramallah

By Ali Sawafta and John Davison

RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Violence in the occupied West Bank has surged since Israel began bombarding the Gaza Strip and clashing with Hezbollah at the Lebanon border, fuelling concerns the flashpoint Palestinian territory could become a third front in a wider war.

Israel is waging war against the militant Hamas group in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, but Israeli soldiers and settlers pulled out of Gaza in 2005. Israel still occupies the West Bank, captured with Gaza in a 1967 Middle East war.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, killed more than 1,400 people in a surprise attack in Israel on Oct. 7, prompting an Israeli bombardment that has killed 3,500 in Gaza. Israel is preparing a full-scale ground assault on Gaza to destroy Hamas.

Western countries supporting Israel fear a wider war that would open up Lebanon, with its Iran-backed group Hezbollah, as a second front and the West Bank as what Israeli media call a potential third front.

Clashes between Israeli soldiers and settlers and Palestinians have already turned deadly. More than 70 Palestinians have been killed in West Bank violence since Oct. 7 and Israel has arrested more than 800 people.

Israeli forces raided and carried out an air strike in a Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank on Thursday, killing at least 12 people, Palestinian officials said, and Israeli police said an officer was killed during the raid.

The violence poses a challenge to both Israel and to the Palestinian Authority (PA), the only Palestinian governing body recognised internationally which is headquartered there.

The Israeli military said it was on high alert and bracing for attacks including by Hamas militants in the West Bank.

Hamas was trying to "engulf Israel in a two- or three-front war", including the Lebanese border and the West Bank, military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus told Reuters. "The threat is elevated," he said.

'GIVE PEOPLE WEAPONS. LET THEM CLASH'

In Ramallah, rare chants this week supporting the military wing of Hamas - a rival of the PA's ruling Fatah party - showed a growing appetite for armed resistance.

"Give people weapons. Let them clash. We'll show what we can do," said Salah, a 20-year-old demonstrator who gave only his first name.

Fatah official Mowafaq Sehweel told Reuters: "We should let go of the reins and use whatever means to fight occupation."

Others are less ready to fight.

Nizar Mughrabi, owner of an architecture firm, said he was disgusted by Israel's assault on Gaza but not ready to pick up a gun.

"Netanyahu wants to fight, Haniyeh wants to fight - put them in the desert with guns and let them shoot each other," he said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

Palestinian officials and Israeli analysts say a number of factors are both helping to ignite tensions, but conversely also limiting their scope, for now.

One is the hundreds of arrests Israel has made.

Hamas cited attacks on West Bank Palestinians and arrests this year as part of its reason for attacking on Oct. 7.

But the arrests have also limited West Bank violence, said Mustafa al-Khawaja, a 52-year-old anti-settlement activist.

"In Gaza, there's enough time (for Hamas) to organise militarily," he said. "Here, the occupation (Israel) can clamp down on a daily basis. It leaves no space to build up military or political forces."

WEST BANK A COMPLEX PATCHWORK

While Hamas tightly controls besieged Gaza, the West Bank is a complex patchwork of hillside cities, Israeli settlements and army checkpoints that split Palestinian communities.

Israel occupied the territory in 1967 and has divided it into large areas it controls, small areas where Palestinians have full control and areas where Palestinians and Israeli forces divide civil and security duties.

Between the seat of power in Ramallah and poorer peripheral areas, there are multiple views on the benefits of violence.

Desperate young men in refugee camps are more willing to fight than those in Ramallah where businessmen and senior Palestinian officials stand to lose from a spiral of violence.

"My business is already suffering because of the unrest," Mughrabi said.

Another key factor in stemming violence is Israel's security agreement with 87-year-old President Mahmoud Abbas's PA.

Abbas condemned Israel's assault on Gaza while his security forces cracked down on demonstrations. Fatah has not issued public calls for armed resistance.

"The PA wants to keep peace and is worried that marches of thousands of people could quickly turn into hundreds of thousands," said Palestinian political analyst Hadi al-Masri.

He added that PA officials do well financially and rely on arrangements with Israel to get paid.

Should Abbas lose his grip or become ill in his old age, the situation could deteriorate, he said.

'LONE WOLVES'

Lior Akerman, a former officer in Israel's internal security service the Shin Bet, said fears over West Bank unrest predated the Hamas war.

Hamas for years had been trying to "do all it can to activate terrorists in the West Bank," he said.

Akerman acknowledged, however, that security measures had been tightened since the Gaza bombardment began, saying that the most recent round of arrests might not have happened under normal circumstances.

"Last night the army ... took around 100 terrorists in the West Bank. In regular days ... the Shin Bet would arrest only those they knew were preparing terror attacks," he said.

One worry for Israel in the West Bank is "lone wolf" attacks from among Palestinians who have disparate local loyalties but an overall contempt for Israeli occupation, analysts say.

Recent surveys have shown overwhelming public support among Palestinians for armed groups, including local militias that include members from traditionally separate factions.

Even before the current Gaza crisis, the West Bank had seen a surge in violence.

Israel stepped up military raids and a spate of Palestinian attacks targeted Israelis. The 2023 Palestinian death toll until Oct. 7 was over 220 and at least 29 people in Israel had been killed, according to UN records.

(Reporting by Ali Sawafta in Ramallah, John Davison in Jerusalem; Writing by John Davison; Editing by Howard Goller)