[News] Settlers, army go on revenge rampage in West Bank

[Anti-Imperialist News]

electronicintifada.net
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/settlers-army-go-revenge-rampage-west-bank>
Settlers, army go on revenge rampage in West Bank

Tamara Nassar <https://electronicintifada.net/people/tamara-nassar> - 29
January 2023
------------------------------
[image: Women wearing headscarves crying and comforting each other]

Palestinians mourn during the funeral of Omar al-Saadi on 29 January. He
died of injuries sustained when Israeli occupation forces shot him in Jenin
refugee camp days earlier.
APA images

Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians across the occupied West Bank in
revenge for the killing of seven Israelis by a Palestinian gunman at a
settlement in occupied East Jerusalem on Friday.

This came as the Israeli government was set to arm thousands
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-29/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-says-israel-not-looking-for-escalation-but-prepared-for-anything-after-shootings/00000185-fd64-da5b-a1d5-fd65cac50000>
more of its citizens, a move certain to lead to more vigilante killings and
violence.

The Israeli government also vowed to “strengthen
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-28/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-planning-fast-and-powerful-response-to-east-jerusalem-attacks-source-says/00000185-f86c-d4a2-adb5-f86c883a0000>”
its illegal West Bank settlements in response to Friday’s shooting, using
the bloodshed as a pretext to further confiscate and colonize Palestinian
land – another move certain to fuel more violence.

Meanwhile, occupation forces began collectively punishing the gunman’s
family by sealing off their home
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/security-forces-seal-home-of-terrorist-who-carried-out-deadly-jerusalem-attack/>
in preparation for a revenge demolition.

Israel is also vowing more collective punishments – war crimes under
international law – including denying social security benefits to relatives
of alleged Palestinian attackers and deporting their families.

These kinds of collective punishment are an essential feature of Israel’s
system of apartheid, as they are only used against Palestinians.
Settler rampages

On Sunday, groups of settlers attacked
<https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/sylafh42o> Palestinian cars with
stones on roads in several locations in the West Bank, including a
crossroads near the Yitzhar settlement, close to Nablus.

In that location, settlers attacked Palestinians with pepper spray and one
Palestinian was reportedly lightly injured by the stone-throwing Jewish
colonists.

A house and a car were set ablaze in the village of Turmusaya near Ramallah
overnight on Sunday.
A second house in the same village was vandalized: Israeli police are
reportedly
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-29/ty-article/.premium/cars-property-torched-in-palestinian-villages-in-suspected-hate-crimes-by-israelis/00000185-fc62-d4a2-adb5-fc6af9b20000>
investigating the incident, but there is vanishingly little chance
<https://www.yesh-din.org/en/data-sheet-december-2021-law-enforcement-on-israeli-civilians-in-the-west-bank-settler-violence/>
anyone will be held accountable.

Palestinian American citizens own both homes, and maintenance staff plan to
notify the US embassy of the attacks.

Settlers sprayed “revenge” and “death to the Arabs” in the village as well,
according <https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/sylafh42o> to *Ynet*, an
Israeli publication.

Palestinians told media that Israeli soldiers in the area looked on and did
nothing as the settlers rampaged.

Meanwhile, settlers uprooted and stole more than 100 olive saplings in the
village of Aqraba near Nablus.
Settlers also set cars ablaze in Aqraba and Majdal Bani Fadil, another
nearby village. In Nablus, settlers vandalized a Palestinian ambulance:
They also reportedly damaged and destroyed tents used by farmers in the
Jordan Valley. Revenge attacks by Israeli settlers follow the killings of
seven Israelis
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/seven-killed-jerusalem-settlement-attack>
in Neve Yaakov, a settlement in occupied East Jerusalem, by Khayri Alqam,
21, on Friday.

Alqam, who was shot and killed by soldiers, is reportedly named
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-shooter-named-after-grandfather-killed-settler>
after his grandfather who was killed by Israeli settler Haim Ferelman in
1998, along with three other Palestinians.

Despite this, Ferelman was later released
<https://www.alarab.com/Article/320821>. He lives in a Jewish-only colony
in the West Bank.

Friday’s killings in Neve Yaakov followed Israel’s attack on Jenin refugee
camp on Thursday in which occupation forces killed nine Palestinians
<https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/tamara-nassar/israeli-bloodbath-jenin-kills-9-palestinians>,
including two children and one woman. At least 20 people were injured in
the Israeli attack.

A 10th person died from his wounds on Sunday. Israeli forces shot Omar
Tariq al-Saadi, 24, in the stomach on Thursday, waccording
<https://www.facebook.com/mohps/posts/pfbid0qhA2cJbNPBZoVLL27XxFW3HeWkWJqhhxtXcQZti5pooykTqeSU6saCGgDfmH6q3Al>
to the Palestinian health ministry.
Fuelling more violence

The European Union strongly condemned
<https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/israel-statement-high-representative-terror-attacks-jerusalem_en>
the attack in Neve Yaakov as an act of “insane violence and hate.”

Brussels also made the inflammatory and false claim that the attack took
place “in a Jerusalem synagogue” killing and injuring people “as they
attended Shabbat service.”

But Israeli media accounts uniformly say that the shooting took place in a
street “near a synagogue
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/five-wounded-in-suspected-shooting-attack-in-jerusalem-assailant-shot/>
.”

By contrast, the EU retroactively endorsed
<https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/israelpalestine-statement-high-representative-events-jenin_en>
Israel’s lethal attack in Jenin, saying that Brussels “fully recognizes
Israel’s legitimate security concerns, as evidenced by the latest terrorist
attacks.”

In reality, Friday’s shootings followed the Jenin massacre, which a UN
official described
<https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151627428/palestinians-say-israeli-troops-kill-9-in-west-bank-raid>
as “the deadliest single Israeli operation in the West Bank since at least
2005.”

As Gideon Levy, a columnist for Israel’s *Haaretz* newspaper, wrote
<https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2023-01-29/ty-article/.premium/what-where-you-thinking/00000185-f9d7-dfd4-add5-fbf708930000>
on Sunday, “everyone knew the Jenin operation would set off a dangerous
wave of violence.”

He said it was “not possible to invade the Jenin refugee camp without a
massacre,” adding that “no massacre in the camp could pass quietly.”

Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq documented
<https://www.alhaq.org/advocacy/21158.html> numerous violations of
international law by Israeli forces during the deadly raid on Jenin refugee
camp.

In one case, the Israeli attackers shot a Palestinian child and then “a
military vehicle ran over his deceased body, severing his right ear and
maiming his face.”

Following the Jenin massacre, Israeli media reported several attempts by
Palestinians to attack Israeli soldiers or settlers.

The year 2022 saw the highest number of Palestinians killed
<https://electronicintifada.net/content/palestine-pictures-december-2022/36941>
by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem,
since the second intifada nearly two decades ago.

According to The Electronic Intifada’s monitoring, 207 Palestinians were
killed by the Israeli military, police and settlers in the West Bank, Gaza
and inside Israel during the year, or died from injuries sustained in
previous years.

So far in 2023, Israel has killed an average of one Palestinian every day,
a fact little remarked on in Western media coverage, but one that is
driving the violence.
Increased violence

Another Palestinian allegedly shot
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-28/ty-article/.premium/two-wounded-in-shooting-in-east-jerusalem-less-than-a-day-after-deadly-synagogue-attack/00000185-f792-d4a2-adb5-f7ba4e2d0000>
and injured an off-duty soldier and his father in the Silwan neighborhood
of occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday.

Media identified
<https://www.aljazeera.net/politics/2023/1/28/%D8%A3%D8%B5%D8%BA%D8%B1-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%88%D9%85-%D9%85%D9%82%D8%AF%D8%B3%D9%8A-%D9%85%D9%86-%D9%87%D9%88-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D9%88%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA>
the shooter as 13-year-old Mahmoud Aleiwat.

The boy’s family denies
<https://mobile.twitter.com/AJABreaking/status/1619279605545811968> that he
could have been involved in the shooting, though he is reported
<https://arabic.rt.com/middle_east/1429809-%D9%85%D9%86%D9%81%D8%B0-%D8%B9%D9%85%D9%84%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%B3%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86-%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%85%D8%AF-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%8A%D8%AA%D8%B1%D9%83-%D8%B1%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A9-%D9%84%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D8%AA%D9%87-%D8%B3%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D8%A7-%D8%A3%D9%85%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%AA%D8%AE%D8%B1%D9%8A%D9%86-%D8%A8%D9%8A/>
to have left a message to his mother asking for forgiveness.

The soldier had his weapon on him and he shot the boy. Another settler also
shot him.

The wounded soldier is in serious but stable condition, and his father is
reportedly in moderate condition.

The child accused of the shooting is conscious and receiving treatment,
according to *Haaretz*.

A relative of Mahmoud Aleiwat’s was shot by Israeli forces in Silwan days
earlier.

Wadie Abdul Aziz Abu Rumouz, 17, was shot in the chest on 25 January. Even
while Wadie was in the intensive care unit, Israeli authorities kept him
under arrest.

He died from his wounds on Friday.
Israel is now planning on demolishing
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-29/ty-article/.premium/israel-seals-off-home-of-jerusalem-synagogue-shooter-in-preparation-for-demolition/00000185-fc3f-def6-a7b5-fd3f65600000>
the 13-year-old boy’s family home, as well as that of Khayri Alqam.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian youth was shot and killed
<https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-01-29/ty-article/.premium/suspected-palestinian-terrorist-shot-near-west-bank-settlement/00000185-fa78-d4a2-adb5-fa781ce20000>
by a security guard near the Kedumim settlement in the northern West Bank
on Saturday.

Karam Ali Salman, 18, had tried to enter the settlement armed with a
pistol, the army claimed
<https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1619467154793058305>. Video of him
was shared by local media.

It shows a person walking carefully through a field carrying an object:
Israeli media did not report any injuries among settlers.

Kedumim, which is built <https://www.btselem.org/settlements/2009_kedumim>
on private Palestinian land, houses Israeli finance minister Bezalel
Smotrich.

In another incident, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian truck driver who
they claimed was attempting a car-ramming attack, but later admitted
<https://twitter.com/idfonline/status/1619423055713042432> that this wasn’t
the case.

The army said no one was injured in the incident.

Despite the spiraling bloodshed, Israel and its allies seem determined not
to learn that more killings and oppression of Palestinians never quell
resistance, but only fuel it.

*Ali Abunimah contributed reporting.*
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