[News] Israeli Settlers Take Advantage of Gaza Chaos to Attack Palestinians in West Bank

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/13/israel-settlers-gaza-palestinians-west-bank/>
Israeli Settlers Take Advantage of Gaza Chaos to Attack Palestinians in
West Bank
Yuval Abraham - October 13, 2023
------------------------------

*This article includes graphic images of violence.*

*While the world* focuses on the Hamas massacre in Israel and Israel’s
bombing of Gaza
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-war-crimes-palestinians/>,
settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of the chaos
<https://theintercept.com/2023/10/12/israel-gaza-internet-access/> 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
<https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyT6sGIx2Kf/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D> 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.

Palestinian media reported <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1A6vk6RV2s> on
Thursday that settlers attacked the funerals of the four Qusra residents
who had been killed the day before. According to the Palestinian Ministry
of Health, the settlers shot dead a father and son, Ibrahim and Ahmed Wadi.

Settlers in Esh Kodesh and the surrounding area had sent warning messages
to Qusra’s residents in the previous two days, in which they threatened to
take revenge in response to Hamas’s assault in southern Israel. In one
photo, which was sent to the residents a few days ago, a group of masked
men can be seen holding fuel tanks, an electric saw, and axes, with a
caption in Arabic and Hebrew: “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra
village, we are waiting for you and we will not feel sorry for you. The day
of revenge is coming.”
[image: Warning letter sent to Palestinian villagers from Israeli settlers
says in Hebrew and Arabic, "to all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village,
we are waiting for you and we will not feel sorry for you. The day of
revenge is coming."]

Warning letter sent to Palestinian villagers from Israeli settlers says in
Arabic and Hebrew, “To all the rats in the sewers of Qusra village, we are
waiting for you and we will not feel sorry for you. The day of revenge is
coming.”
Flyer obtained by +972 Magazine

According to a Qusra resident who asked to be identified by just his first
name, Abed, “It started at noon, when 20 masked men invaded the village and
stoned the houses of families living on the edge of the village. They came
from the direction of the Esh Kodesh outpost. We ran there to get the
families out of their homes, because settlers tried to set fire to one of
the houses. A mother, father, and a girl were inside. While we were trying
to get the little girl out of the house, they started shooting at us,
hitting the girl. They killed three people.”

According to eyewitnesses, at least 15 Palestinians were wounded by
gunfire. Medical personnel who treated the wounded said that the condition
of some of them was critical.

“I evacuated a girl who was shot; she was injured inside her house and was
bleeding,” said Bashar al-Kariyuti, a Palestinian ambulance driver who
arrived at the scene during the attack. “The girl’s father was also shot in
the face. It was impossible to recognize him.”

Ahmed, a third eyewitness to the incident who requested that his last name
be withheld for security reasons, recounted that the military stayed inside
their observation post while settlers opened fire at Qusra’s residents. “My
cousin was hit in the head, my brother was shot right at the entrance to
his house,” he said. “Then soldiers took the [digital video recorder] that
recorded everything; an hour after the event they came in and confiscated
cameras. I’m sure they did it to erase the evidence.”

Residents of Qusra said that a small number of soldiers accompanied the
settlers throughout the attack. When the villagers threw stones at the
settlers to force them back, soldiers backed up the settlers with live
fire, according to the residents.

Commenting on the attack, an Israeli military spokesperson said, “An IDF
force operating on the outskirts of Qusra reported hearing gunfire. The
claim about Palestinians being hit by gunfire is being investigated.”

Along with the incident in Qusra, settlers have attacked at least 18
villages throughout the West Bank since the infiltration of Hamas on
Saturday, according to Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights group. The army
announced
<https://www.albawaba.com/amp/news/israeli-forces-distributes-1000-m16-rifles-settlers-west-bank-1537155>
that due to the security situation, the police will distribute M-16 rifles
to settlers in the West Bank. Media organizations affiliated with extremist
settler groups in the area called on
<https://www.mekomit.co.il/%d7%9e%d7%aa%d7%a0%d7%97%d7%9c%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%9e%d7%a0%d7%a6%d7%9c%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%90%d7%aa-%d7%94%d7%9e%d7%a6%d7%91-%d7%9b%d7%93%d7%99-%d7%9c%d7%aa%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%a3-%d7%91%d7%92%d7%93%d7%94-6/#:~:text=%D7%9C%D7%9E%D7%AA%D7%A0%D7%97%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D%20%D7%91%D7%92%D7%93%D7%94.%20%D7%91%D7%92%D7%95%D7%A4%D7%99-,%D7%AA%D7%A7%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%A8%D7%AA,-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%96%D7%95%D7%94%D7%99%D7%9D%20%D7%A2%D7%9D%20%D7%A0%D7%95%D7%A2%D7%A8>
settlers to prepare to “conquer the villages near you” and to “destroy
anyone who joins the enemy.”

On Monday, settler violence led to the expulsion of every resident of
Al-Qanub, a small village north of Hebron comprising eight families,
located near the settlements of Ma’ale Amos and Asfar. The village
residents said that settlers burned three houses — made of iron rods
covered with thick cloth — with all their belongings inside.

“[The settlers] came down to us, grabbed me, and said we had an hour to
leave the village,” said Abu Jamal, a resident of Al-Qanub. “Then, about 10
settlers came, poured gasoline, and set fire to my house. Seven people
lived there. The cupboards, the food, everything caught fire. They also
burned my son’s house and stole all my sheep and my livelihood. We will not
go back there. I am 67 years old, and my children are psychologically
damaged.”

Wa’ed, a resident of the village, took her children and hid in a nearby
valley. “I have children, a 6-month-old baby, a 2-year-old, and a
5-year-old,” she said, “I ran to hide with them in the valley when the
settlers entered. I heard the sounds of explosions and thought they had
killed my husband. When they left, I saw that they had burned everything of
ours.”

Families living on the outskirts of Turmus Ayya, near the Shiloh
settlement, said that eight armed settlers, partially dressed in military
uniforms, ordered them to leave their homes; they also set up a sort of
checkpoint, which they have been operating ever since. “On the first day of
the war, a group of settlers built a room a few meters from our houses,
closed our access road to the houses, and since then have been there all
the time,” said Abdullah, a local resident. “We are 25 people, many
children and women, who cannot leave or enter the village. We reach our
homes through the olive groves. Anyone who leaves their house, including
women, is stopped and searched.”

In a mountainous area in southern Hebron, settlers on Tuesday violently
attacked residents of two tiny villages, and settlers bulldozed two houses
in the village of Simri, whose residents had previously left due to settler
violence.

“Three settlers came for my children. One with an army weapon, the second
with a gun, the third with a knife,” said an elderly resident hospitalized
with back and leg injuries, who asked to remain anonymous for fear the
settlers would take revenge on him. “They told me to shut up and started
beating me with the butt of a rifle. They knocked me to the floor, closed
the door of the house on the children, and beat my wife in the chest as
well. They said that it’s now a war, and that if I say anything to the
media, they’ll come back at night and burn my family. I shouted to them
that I am a shepherd, that I am not connected to the war in Gaza.”
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