This Saturday, armed Israeli settlers attacked ten villages in West Bankleaving more than a dozen Palestinians injured by gunshotsafter the Israeli Army, the Police and the Shin Bet internal intelligence service claimed to have found the lifeless body of a 14-year-old Israeli teenager near a settlement.
According to medical sources from the Palestinian Red Crescent, more than a dozen Palestinians were wounded by gunshots – five in the village of Al Mughayir, where a 25-year-old Palestinian died on Friday in a first attack by settlers together with law enforcement. –, and another five in the village of Duma, northeast of Ramallah.
At least three more were beaten, and one Palestinian was injured with rubber bullets in widespread attacks that burned homes and smashed cars, according to a count by the Israeli NGO Yesh Din in eight other villages: As Sawiya, Qusra, Beitin, Silwad , Sinjil, Beitillu, Turmusaya and Beit Furik. While, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohamad Mustafa condemned the settler attacks and said in a statement that they “will not deter Palestinians from remaining in their land.”
The retaliation
These attacks occurred after a search device using a drone found the lifeless body, near the Malachei HaShalom outpost (an illegal settlement also under Israeli law) of 14-year-old settler Benjamin Achimeir, who disappeared early Friday morning. tomorrow when he went out to herd sheep.
The Israeli Army reported in a statement that The military and police presence in the West Bank will increase. According to the text, members of the Israeli law enforcement forces were also injured in the clashes that lasted hours and that “riot dispersal means” were used to end the altercations.
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted a message on the social network terrorists”. “Acts of revenge will make the mission of our soldiers more difficult. Justice should not be taken into its own hands,” he said in reference to the search operation to find the person responsible for the death of the teenager, who authorities believe is Palestinian.
For his part, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahuannounced a “wide-ranging manhunt to locate Achimeir’s despicable killers and anyone who collaborated with them.” “We are going to find the murderers and their collaborators just as we do with anyone who harms citizens of the State of Israel,” he warned in a message published and deleted shortly after.according to the Israeli press.
Netanyahu also referred to the actions of settlers attacking Palestinian areas. “I urge all citizens of Israel to allow the security forces to do their job without interfering so that they can deal as quickly as possible with the abhorrent killers and their helpers,” he stressed.
“End anarchy”
The leader of the Israeli opposition and former prime minister of the country, Yair Lapidafter regretting the death of the young man, warned that the riots carried out by the settlers represent “a dangerous violation of the law and interfere with the security forces operating in the area.”
Lapid, as he did other times, He blamed both Netanyahu and the country’s Minister of Internal Security, the far-right Itamar Ben Gvir, for facilitating the settler incursions. and, before the outbreak of war in Gaza Strip, drive a new phase of oppression against West Bank communities. “The Prime Minister and his Minister of Internal Security have to put an end to the anarchy that is reigning on the ground before there is more bloodshed,” he remarked on his X account.
These incidents take place amid a spike in violence since 2023, increased after the attacks carried out by Hamas against Israeli territory, which left some 1,200 dead and nearly 240 kidnapped and triggered an Israeli offensive against Gaza that leaves more than 33,600 dead. dead, to which are added nearly 450 Palestinians killed in the West Bank and East Jerusalem at the hands of Israeli security forces and in attacks by settlers.
War crime
Last month the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, had stated that the expansion of Israeli settlements in West Bank constitutes a war crime under international law and threatens to eliminate any practical possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
In a report presented to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Türk denounced that between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2023 24,300 family homes were added to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, the largest number since this count began in 2017. “Such transfers constitute a war crime for which those involved may incur individual criminal responsibility,” Türk said. “The violence and abuses of the settlers against the Palestinian population must stop immediately. The only possible way is a peaceful solution that ends the occupation, establishes a Palestinian State and guarantees the fulfillment of the fundamental rights of its population,” he stressed in that occasion.
