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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/13/israel-settlers-gaza-palestinians-west-bank/">theintercept.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Israeli Settlers Take Advantage of Gaza Chaos to Attack Palestinians in West Bank</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Yuval Abraham - October 13, 2023<br></div>
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<p><em>This article includes graphic images of violence.</em></p>
<p><u>While the world</u> focuses on the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/09/israel-hamas-war-crimes-palestinians/">Hamas massacre in Israel and Israel’s bombing of Gaza</a>, settlers in the West Bank are taking advantage of the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2023/10/12/israel-gaza-internet-access/">chaos</a> to attack and expel Palestinians from small villages.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Israeli soldiers are establishing new checkpoints to block the
movement of Palestinian villagers. On Thursday evening, near Yabrud,
northeast of Ramallah, solders <a href="https://www.instagram.com/reel/CyT6sGIx2Kf/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D">shot at</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Palestinian media <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1A6vk6RV2s">reported</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<img width="392" height="251" src="https://theintercept.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/West-Bank-Flyer.jpeg?w=1024&resize=1024%2C655" alt="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."" class="gmail-moz-reader-block-img" style="margin-right: 25px;">
<p class="gmail-caption">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.”</p>
Flyer obtained by +972 Magazine
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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. </p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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
<a href="https://www.albawaba.com/amp/news/israeli-forces-distributes-1000-m16-rifles-settlers-west-bank-1537155">announced</a>
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 <a href="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">called on</a> settlers to prepare to “conquer the villages near you” and to “destroy anyone who joins the enemy.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“[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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
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