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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-forces-raid-palestinian-towns-settlers-call-burning-huwwara">middleeasteye.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli forces raid Palestinian towns as settlers call for 'burning' of Huwwara</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">By Fayha Shalash in Ramallah, occupied Palestine - August 20, 2023<br></div>
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<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/article_page/public/images-story/Israel-soldiers-huwwara-west-bank-afp.jpg.webp?itok=HYjSdn9I" width="430" height="264"><br><p>Dozens of <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine" target="_blank">Palestinians</a> were wounded on Saturday evening during <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel" target="_blank">Israeli</a>
military raids of towns south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank, as
part of a search for an assailant who earlier in the day shot and <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israelis-killed-west-bank-shooting-attack" target="_blank">killed</a> two settlers near the town of Huwwara. </p>
<p>Simultaneously, settler groups carried out revenge attacks on
Palestinian homes and properties in several towns and villages across
the West Bank.</p>
<p>Israeli forces stormed the town of Beita, the closest town to
Huwwara south of Nablus, leading to confrontations with Palestinians.
The soldiers fired rubber bullets, teargas and sound bombs at residents,
wounding more than 100 people, most of whom suffered suffocation from
smoke inhalation. </p>
<p>Photojournalist Wahaj Bani Mufleh, from Beita, told Middle East Eye
that soldiers fired a teargas canister directly at him, wounding him in
the leg, while he was documenting the raid from afar. He was then taken
to a medical centre. </p>
<p>"We were covering the raid and deliberately being in a neutral area
where there were no Palestinians throwing stones or soldiers firing
bombs, but we were surprised when they targeted us with teargas
canisters, which resulted in my injury," he said.</p>
<p>The Palestine Red Crescent Society said that 112 Palestinians were
wounded during the raid on Beita, which lasted for hours, including
three who were hit with teargas bombs.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a family was evacuated from their house after it was targeted by teargas.</p>
<h3>Closure of villages</h3>
<p>Several other nearby villages and towns were also raided and
searched, with their main entrances closed, which resulted in traffic
jams, with others caused by military barriers that were erected all
around the city of Nablus.</p>
<p>Saad Awwad, head of the Awarta village council, south of Nablus, said
barriers surrounding Huwwara had forced Palestinian motorists to take
narrow alternative roads to reach their villages, leading to hundreds of
Palestinians being stuck in their vehicles from 8pm until 1am.</p>
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<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/huwwara-riots-eyewitness-account-israel-settler-attack-palestinian-town" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.middleeasteye.net/sites/default/files/styles/read_more/public/images-story/Huwwara-scrapyard-palestinian-israel-settler-attack-feb-ap.jpg.webp?itok=jDKoHXQE" width="400" height="250" alt="" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img">
</a></p><p><font size="1">Huwwara riots: Eyewitness account of Israeli settler attack on Palestinian town</font></p>
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<p>Several Palestinian families had offered the people stuck in their
cars places to sleep in their homes until the checkpoints were reopened.</p>
<p>Awwad said Israeli soldiers had also fired gas bombs in the southern
area of Awarta, which led to the burning of a number of trees.</p>
<p>"In addition, the Israeli soldiers closed the road between Awarta and
Beita with dirt mounds, which hindered the arrival of eight teachers on
the first day of the new school year," he said.</p>
<p>In the nearby town of Aqraba, more than 150 Israeli forces stormed
several houses after blowing up their doors. They arrested a 60-year-old
Palestinian and his 35-year-old son in one of the house raids. </p>
<p>Salah Khalil, the head of the Aqraba council, said soldiers also blew
up the doors of several shops and confiscated surveillance equipment
recordings before they withdrew from the town in the early hours of
Sunday.</p>
<p>Even after the soldiers pulled out, military vehicles continued to
block the road between Aqraba and the nearby town of Yanun, preventing
the passage of Palestinians.</p>
<p>"The main objective of setting up barriers and closing the entrances
is to separate the villages south of Nablus from one another and to make
it difficult for Palestinians to move between them," Khalil said.</p>
<h3>Settler Attacks</h3>
<p>As the raids were underway, settlers, protected by the Israeli army,
launched several attacks on Saturday night and Sunday morning, targeting
Palestinian homes and vehicles</p>
<p>The most prominent attacks took place in the vicinity of Nablus,
where settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles and attacked
residential buildings after posting posters urging "Burn down Huwara".</p>
<p>Bashar Eid, a resident of Burin village, south of Nablus, said settlers stoned his house, which had terrified his children.</p>
<p>"We were sitting in the house in the evening when we heard settlers
shouting at us, then they threw stones at the house. My little girls
started crying, and I tried to calm them down, then I shouted back at
the settlers to drive them away," he told MEE.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>'We live in a prison, and I can't even go to work for fear that they could attack my family'</p>
<p><em>- Bashar Eid, resident of Burin</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Last year, Eid sustained a bullet wound to his leg when settlers
targeted his house during a rampage through several West Bank towns.
This time, he said, he stayed inside during the assault on his home,
which lasted half-an-hour.</p>
<p>Amid the crying of his children and the settlers' insults, Eid tried
to contact the villagers to come and protect his house. The settlers
eventually moved away.</p>
<p>"They couldn't break the windows because I'd put up protective nets
like those placed on prison windows. We live in a prison, and I can't
even go to work for fear that they could attack my family," Eid said.</p>
<p>Settlers also smashed several Palestinians vehicles with stones
near the towns of Umm Safa and Beitin in Ramallah, and Palestinian
properties were attacked in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.</p>
<p>Seperately, the Israeli army shot and wounded a masked Israeli
settler, mistaken for being a Palestinian, who had been throwing stones
at cars near the village of al-Laban al-Sharqi, south of Nablus,
according to Israeli media.</p>
<p>In June, Israeli settlers <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestinian-settlers-rampage-towns-fire" target="_blank">rampaged</a>
through several Palestinian town, torching cars, setting farmland on
fire and vandalising homes, following the killing of four Israelis in
the West Bank.</p>
<p>In February, similar <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-settlers-set-palestinian-town-ablaze-after-deadly-shooting" target="_blank">attacks </a>were
made on several Palestinian towns, with homes and property burnt,
after two Israelis were killed while driving through Huwwara. At least
one Palestinian was killed and nearly 400 wounded in the attacks.</p>
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