Three more West Bank Palestinians were killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers on Saturday, the third such deadly attack over the last week. This is on top of a new blockade on Gaza and sweeping movement restrictions throughout the West Bank. Palestinians from the village of Abu Falah tried to stop masked Israelis from destroying the residents’ prized olive trees. Then a swarm of armed settlers invaded the town. Two men, Thaer Faruq Hamayel, 30 and Fara Jawdat Hamayel, 57, were shot in the head. Then Israelis security forces followed up with military-grade tear gas, killing Muhammad Hassan, 54, a father of four.
A member of the Abu Falah local council, Amin Shuman: “What is happening now is extremely dangerous. The world is preoccupied with the war with Iran, while settlers, protected by the Israeli army, continue to attack innocent civilians. No one is being held accountable.”
Israel-based rights group B’tselem: “Under the cover of war, the cooperation between the military and Israeli settler militias is deepening the ethnic cleansing of the West Bank. Settlers deliberately graze livestock in Palestinians’ cultivated fields, destroy crops and stored food, steal livestock, and vandalize solar panels and water tanks. Settlers have also used bulldozers to raze and take over privately owned Palestinian land.”
Settler attacks had intensified over the last week and on Saturday they arrived armed with sticks, slingshots, pistols, and M16 rifles, said Hamid Hamayel, a cousin of Thaer. “Their goal is to confiscate the land and force us to leave. Such attacks would not happen without the close cooperation between the settlers and the Israeli army.”
Separately, in the West Bank’s Hebron Hills, settlers drove their livestock onto Palestinian land and then, when residents tried to stop them, they opened fire at point-blank range. Amir Muhammad Shanaran, 28, was killed and his brother Khaled was critically injured. Footage filmed moments after the attack, and shared by B’tselem, showed an Israeli in army uniform holding an assault rifle a few feet from one of the men who is collapsed on the ground. The IDF declined to comment.
Breaking the Silence, an advocacy group for former Israeli soldiers, said settlers were carrying out an average of 10 attacks daily across the West Bank, under cover of the war. “As often happens when the media attention shifts, Israel seized the moment to intensify its attacks against Palestinians,” the group said on social media. “As missiles fly and Iran again dominates the headlines, don’t look away from the ethnic cleansing unfolding in the West Bank.”
