By: Madeeha Al-A’raj
The national Bureau for Defending the Land and Resisting Settlements stated in its latest weekly report , that with every passing day, the Israeli occupation settlers exploit the brutal war on Gaza, to ignite the situation in the Palestinian governorates of the West Bank, knowing that those settlers are no longer the ones before the war, as they have become more dangerous after the occupation government has armed them in light of the large number of settlement residents joining the occupation army to fight in the Gaza Strip. Today, they are organized into military and paramilitary formations ‘militias’ working side by side with forces designated to ensure security of settlements and settlers in the West Bank, so that they do not face the fate of settlers in the Gaza envelope, according to their claims.
The Kfir Brigade within which the ‘Nitzach Yehuda’ Brigade was before the war, a brutal strike force storming cities, villages and camps, where these days ‘daily crimes are committed’ of which more than 350 Palestinian citizens were killed during the war. The force moved to the battle front in the Gaza Strip, and as an alternative, the occupation government decided to build formations with various names, from ‘emergency teams’ called ‘Haghmar’ and others. A large number of ‘Pay Price’ terrorist elements, who use the name ‘Hilltop Youth’ as a civilian cover for their practices, have also joined the emergency teams.
Since those settlers joined the military formations in the West Bank, their involvement in violence acts, threats, and sabotage of Palestinian property have begun to accumulate as they now started to demolish homes, sabotage infrastructure, bulldoze fields, build roads, demolish water wells, and prevent citizens from reaching their fields and lands, as happened during the olive harvest season in particular, according to B’Tselem data, residents of 16 Bedouin and herding villages in Area C have fled since the beginning of the war, due to acts of violence and threats practiced by the settlers protected by Israeli soldiers. As for the ‘Yesh Din organization’ i.e. ‘There is a Law’, confirmed in its latest reports that acts of violence committed by settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank hit the record in 2023, the UN also recorded 1,225 attacks launched by settlers against Palestinians during the same year.
The pace was high compared to previous years, but the highest pace was after the 7th of last Oct. where the attacks concentrated, especially at the beginning of this year, in the south of Mount Hebron, including in the village of Wadi Jahish, Sha`b-Batm, and Ta’ala without preventing them, although the Palestinians identified in a number of cases the soldiers as settlers from the area. Hundreds of attacks have been recorded since the beginning of the war, and yet only 2 investigations have been opened by the military police on suspicion of criminal crimes committed by ‘emergency’ team soldiers and a newly formed battalion of extremist settlers called ’Hagmar.’
The so called ‘Central Region Command’ turns a blind eye to their violence and said, ‘the process of recruiting Hagmar soldiers took place within the framework of a quick examination as possible regarding each case, and recruitment decisions were made according to the special circumstances, if there is other information that was not in the hands of the designated authority at the time of recruitment, the matter will be re-examined, and decisions will be made accordingly’.
This week’s National Bureau’s settlement report shed light on the violence unleashed by settlers over the past week in the Palestinian Governorates of Hebron, Bethlehem, and the Jordan Valley for illustration only, the orgy of settlers’ herds covered several areas of the Hebron Governorate, as they accompanied the occupation soldiers to severely beat citizens in the vicinity of the city of Dura, which resulted in transferring a number of them to Dura Hospital, and destroyed their agricultural crops. In the Yatta city, settlers from the ‘Itzkhar Man settlement’ attacked shepherds in Wadi-Jawaya, and forced them to leave the pastures after assaulting them.
They destroyed a fence surrounding the area’s lands, unleashed their livestock on citizens’ agricultural crops, and prevented others from cultivating their land, and in the ‘Wadi Ajhish’ area in Masafer Yatta, the occupation soldiers accompanied by settlers detained citizens, abused them, and expelled them from their lands, as well as in the ‘Quwaiwis’ area, settlers planted trees on citizens’ lands, while others chased sheep herders and prevented them from reaching pastures in the ‘Wadi Ma’in’ area.
Dozens of armed settlers from the ‘Itzkhar Man and ‘Maon settlements’, attacked the Jawaya community in Masafer Yatta, and caused damage to their contents. Meanwhile, settlers of ‘Susya and Havat Ma’on’ destroyed citizens’ crops in the villages of Al-Rakiz, Al-Tuwanah, Al-Mufaqara, and Susiya, they released their livestock there protected by the occupation police and soldiers. In the Ma’in area, east of Yatta, the occupation forces accompanied by armed settlers attacked citizens, chased them, prevented them from working on their lands, and seized their agricultural equipment, just as they did with the shepherds in the ‘Fateh Sidra’ area in Al-Musafer and prevented them from reaching their lands. The Tarqumiya town was also attacked by them, they demolished agricultural rooms and stone chains, and bulldozed 20 dunams of the town’s land, while the occupation forces prevented citizens from approaching their lands in the Al-Taybeh area, close to the ‘Adora settlement’, an area that witnesses constant settler attacks on people and their properties.
Hebron was also suffered of the settler violence as heavily armed settlers accompanied by occupation soldiers assaulted citizens in the Old City of Hebron. They also assaulted Palestinian citizens in the Jaber Neighborhood in the Old City, searched them in a humiliating manner, and prevented them from standing on the balconies, windows, roofs and entrances of their homes.
As for the Bethlehem Governorate also witnessed acts of orgies carried out by heavily armed settlers as they stormed an archaeological and historical site in the ‘Janatah town’ east of Bethlehem, and others wreaked havoc in ‘Ein Hamda’s water spring that belongs to the Bethlehem Municipality, which is surrounded by a bypass road, and close to the “Takwa” settlement. They began construction work in an attempt to seize hundreds of dunams of surrounding land.
In the Taqu’ wilderness, settlers set up 2 mobile homes in the ‘Danyan Hill’ area, bringing the number of mobile homes in that area to 5, they also installed an iron gate in the Fatura area to prevent citizens from reaching their lands, and extended an electricity network to an old house that they seized it after forcing the owner to evacuate it by force. Moreover, they built roads in preparation for establishing a new colonial outpost in that area, after it had been emptied of its owners, and their tents and homes had been demolished, besides, uprooting 250 olive seedlings and stole agricultural equipment in a scene that is frequently repeated in In Khallet an-Nahlah, south of the city of Bethlehem.
Throughout the Jordan Valley, acts of orgies and violations continue without stopping as armed settlers accompanied by the occupation army attacked citizens’ lands in Arab-Mlihat, west of Jericho. According to the Al-Baidar Organization for Defending Bedouin Rights, they placed a number of iron triangles with the aim of provoking citizens and expanding their control over their lands in the area located at the beginning of the Al-Ma’rajat St. west of Jericho. The attacks come within the framework of the ongoing occupation policy to expand settlements at the expense of Palestinian lands. In the northern Jordan Valley, the Palestinian Red Crescent crews transported the citizen, Qadri Alian Daraghmeh, who was a victim of settlers’ assault on residents’ tents in the ‘Shuwayer’ area, and seized his livestock.
Within the context, Israeli PM Netanyahu decided last week to stop the evacuation and demolition of settlement outposts established by settlers in the West Bank during the war, contrary to the instructions of Army Minister, Yoav Gallant, who instructed the evacuation of one settlement outpost in what the occupying state calls ‘Gush Etzion’ in the Bethlehem Governorate, after National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir launched a violent attack on the Army Minister. A statement issued by Netanyahu’s office in this regard said, ‘Benjamin Netanyahu assumed that as long as the war continues, the eviction and demolition of the homes of fighters and reservists in the settlements of Judea and Samaria i.e. ‘West Bank’ must be stopped.’
As for the settlement activities, which the National Burreau followed-up last week, the Bureau said Jerusalem remains the focus of the occupation government and the municipality of Moshe Lion’s policy. Here, the ‘delusive’ 5-year plan projects for developing East Jerusalem, which the government approved last year has disappeared, to be replaced by projects to blatantly Judaize the city. At this level, and in the context of political propaganda and preparation for the campaign for municipal elections and local authorities in the occupying state, the Moshe Lion municipality in Jerusalem early last week, without legal basis, preempted the judicial procedures in the Jerusalem courts and announced in advance the approval of the settlement plan called “Silicon Valley,” which extends along Wadi Al-Jouz Road and Othman bin Affan Street, to build buildings from 8 to 14 floors on the ruins of commercial and industrial shops in the Jerusalem Industrial Zone.
The plan, as the people of the city of Jerusalem who filed the petition against it confirmed that it is a disastrous plan for the people of Jerusalem, as it violates the owners of businesses in the industrial zone and their property rights by seizing their shops, despite their need for housing and an industrial area, and not for a settlement project aimed at eliminating an entire industrial zone for Jerusalemites that was originally established before the occupation. The plan includes the confiscation of 2,000 dunams of Palestinian-owned land, and the demolition of 200 industrial facilities and workshops in Wadi Joz, to establish a high-tech and technology complex, with services, cafes, hotels, huge towers, and commercial centers.
In its plan, the occupation municipality aims to turn the Palestinian neighborhoods near the walls of the Old City and the Al-Aqsa Mosque into a technological, industrial and commercial center, and a settlement attraction and investment area at the expense of the lands of Jerusalemites, noting that 87% of the land in the city is not available for Palestinian construction, and that only 13% of the land is allocated for Palestinian use, even though most of these areas are already built up and overcrowded.
At the same time, the occupation municipality decided to establish a garbage dump on an area of 109 dunams in a Jerusalemites densely populated area in a valley near Al-Issawiya, Anata, and Ras Shehadeh, east of occupied Jerusalem. This dates back to the year 2012, when the municipality intended to build it on an area of 520 dunums in the same place, but the people of Jerusalem with the help of the ‘Bimkom – Planners for Planning Rights association’ prevented this in the Israeli courts over the course of an entire decade, and they were able to reduce the damage and stop demolishing 70 residential and commercial facilities to implement this plan.
According to the new plan, the dump area will be spread over an area of 109 dunums, that is, a quarter of the area allocated for that in the previous version of the plan for the year 2022, and about a fifth of this size from the original plan for the year 2012, when it was supposed to extend over about 520 dunums. In addition, the new plan requires that the volume of garbage not exceed 350,000m3 only, which is an amount that constitutes between 4-7 % of the volume of dust planned in previous versions, which ranged 5-8 million cubic meters.
List of Israeli Assaults over the Last Week Documented by the National Bureau:
Jerusalem:
- Blowing-up the homes of the two martyrs, Murad, 38, and Ibrahim Nimr, 30 in the town of Sur Baher. The occupation had closed the 2 houses on the second of last month by welding the doors and windows to prevent entry to them, and another house in the town that belonged to the Al-Khatib family after attacking its owners.
- Demolishing ‘barracks – tent’ belonging to citizen Ismail Alian in the Anata town, and bulldozed lands in the Wadi Al-Rababa neighborhood in the town of Silwan.
Hebron:
- Bulldozing a 6-dunum area of land in the Tel-Rumeida Neighborhood in the center of Hebron, belonging to the Hebron Municipality and planted with 50 perennial olives, in preparation for seizing it, in addition to installing an iron gate at the entrance to the land.
- Building new settlement roads, located between the areas of Al-Tha’la and Umm Al-Khair, east of Yatta, to connect the “Karmiel” and “Ma’on” settlements, another road between the “Bani Hefer” settlement and the Birin area northeast of Yatta, and a third road between ‘Atnael’ settlement, west of Yatta, towards Khallet Al-Farra.
- Closing the entrances in Masafer Yatta, they also demolished a house and a barn with an area of 120m2, which were built before the occupation and were more than 80 years old.
- Bulldozing lands and uprooted several fruitful and forest trees, owned by the citizen Murad Abdel Samie Ashour in the village of Birin, south of Hebron.
- Attacking the young man, Omar Abdel Hadi Al-Qassas, 33, south of Hebron, which resulted in bruises, after which he was transferred to Dura Hospital.
- Detaining citizen Mohammad Al-Nawajaa and tortured him in the Yatta town.
Ramallah:
- Uprooting a number of grape and almond trees on the land of citizen Qassem Ghafri in the Abu-Awf area in Sinjil and destroyed his water tanks that he used to irrigate his land.
Bethlehem:
- Bulldozing 2 dunums of land, belonging to the citizen Omar Ismail Issa in the Khalayel Al-Luz area, southeast of Bethlehem.
- Wounding citizen, Ibrahim Awaida Sawarka, 40, he sustained fractures, wounds, and bruises, after settlers severely beaten him while he and his family were in the tent in the Kaisan Wilderness, and they released the police dogs that bitten his leg and caused him fractures, wounds, and bruises throughout his body. He was transferred to the hospital in Bethlehem to receive treatment, and then destroyed the tent and its contents.
- Arresting the child Mahmoud Abayat, 16 while grazing his sheep, and stole 60 heads from him while he was on his land in the “Ash Ghurab” area, east of Bethlehem.
- Storming the Nahalin town and stationed at the northern entrance in the Wadi Salem area, searched agricultural lands and forced the citizens Obaida Ibrahim Shakarna and Moh’d Sawad to leave their lands, seized an agricultural tractor belonging to the citizen Ali Shakarna, also burned a vehicle, destroyed solar panels and damaged monitoring cameras belongs to the citizen Moataz Najajra.
- Uprooting 250 olive seedlings in Khallet al-Nahla, in the Nahalin village south of Bethlehem, from the land of citizen Naji Farraj, seized his excavator, while he was working to reclaim agricultural land in the Khallet al-Dalia area, and prevented farmers from working on their land, knowing that the Khallet al-Dalia area, which is estimated at 200 dunums, planted with perennial olive trees, vines, and almond trees, and it is private property for citizens.
Nablus:
- Seizing the vehicle of detainee Ghassan Dhouqan, invaded his house and destroyed its contents. They also raided a press belonging to the Dhouqan family, and seized its equipment after vandalizing its contents.
- Demolishing the walls of an agricultural room belonging to the citizen Thaer from the Qusra town, and stole its equipment.
- Destroying the house of the citizen Raed Yassin in Burqa, north of Nablus.
Salfeet:
- Demolishing a car wash and a nursery belonging to the citizen Moh’d Mansour in the Kafl Haris town.
- Burning an agricultural room and olive trees owned by the citizen Najeh Harb from the Kafr Al-Deik town in the Al-Jaffa area to the north of the town.
Jenin:
- Attacking Khirbet al-Hamam area between Kafr Ra’i, al-Nazlat, and Khirbet al-Mukhal area, and assaulted citizen, Majdi al-Mkahal, they also attacked citizens’ lands in the northern region ‘the Tabars region’ of Kafr Ra’i’s lands and prevented citizens from entering their lands and working on them.
- Beating citizen Ihsan Moh’d Sa’bna from the Fahma village.
Tulkarm:
- Bulldozing lands near the ‘Sunbula’ settlement, known as the “Harmish” settlement, from the lands of Al-Nazla Al-Sharqiya, north of Tulkarm, 2 months ago, with the aim of expanding the settlement, prevented its owners from entering it and informed the owners of the houses built on it of the occupation’s intention to demolish them in the coming days. Moreover, they assaulted everyone who approach the area and fire live bullets at them.
- Seizing tractors and agricultural equipment belonging to the farmers who work on the neighboring agricultural land of Al-Mughraqa, which belongs to Al-Nazla Al-Sharqiya, which considered their only source of livelihood.
Jordan Valley:
- Confiscating a bulldozer while it was working to level a road in the Ras al-Ahmar area in the northern Jordan Valley. They also seized an agricultural tractor belonging to Hussein Zuhdi Daraghmeh, while he was working in the “Nab’ Ghazal” area in Al-Farsiyya.
- Attacking 2 Palestinian shepherds in the northern Jordan Valley, along Rood 90, one of them was transferred to the Turkish Hospital in Tubas for treatment, opened fire on a private vehicle belonging to Louay Qadri Alian Daraghmeh, causing serious damage to the vehicle, then confiscated it.
- Seizing 500 cows, belonging to citizens Qadri Daraghmeh and Adel Alyan Zamil Daraghmeh, and took them to the the occupation army Camp of ‘Rosh Habqa’.