An olive tree vandalized by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian village of Qaryut, Nablus, April 2023. Photo by OCHA
During September-November 2023, OCHA documented 113 harvest-related cases where Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians, damaged their trees or stole crops and harvesting tools. Of these, ten incidents resulted in casualties and property damage, another ten resulted in casualties but not property damage, and 93 incidents resulted in damage but not casualties. Over 2,000 trees were vandalized during these incidents.
On at least 38 occasions, Palestinian farmers or other eyewitnesses reported that Israeli forces had accompanied the attackers or that the latter had been wearing military uniforms while expelling Palestinians from farmlands or taking over olives and tools.
Make no mistake, Israeli settler violence is state sanctioned terrorism and ecocide, working in tandem with the Israeli military and government. Israel cannot pretend to divorce itself from this settler violence as “fringe extremists” when it arms, backs, and protects the perpetrators.
August 31 2024 - In northern West Bank in Occupied Palestine, illegal Israeli settlers, under the protection of Israeli Occupation Forces, attack international activists and Palestinian villagers whom were protecting the village of Qusra.
In the video, masked Israeli settlers throw rocks at international activists under the protection of Israeli Occupation Forces. The international activists demand accountability, but the Occupation Forces turn their guns on the activists, protecting the masked gangs.
An injured Faz3a activist reports to the camera that many dozens of illegal settlers came to Qusra, throwing rocks and shooting live rounds into the village, injuring multiple people. Settlers set Palestinian homes on fire, destroyed Palestinian property, and attempted to burn down Palestinian olive fields. One volunteer was beaten with fists, while the activist speaking was hit in the head by a rock thrown by a settler, her face swelling beneath her eye.
Qusra has been the target of many violent Israeli settler terrorist attacks and pogroms over the years. Unlike Israeli settlers, Qusra villagers have no weapons to defend themselves besides rocks, and instead formed their own neighborhood watch to protect themselves.
In 2011, settlers vandalized the village’s mosque and tried to set it on fire. They smashed windows, rolled burning tires inside, and wrote “Muhammad is a pig” in Hebrew on its wall. When settlers returned and provoked the village after being warned over speakers to leave, the IOF protected them and killed a Palestinian man.
In 2013, masked settlers from Esh Kodesh trespassed in Qusra and destroyed village property, Qusra villagers apprehended them and handed them over to the Palestinian security forces.
In November 2017, illegal settlers purported to have went on a hike around the frequently terrorized Qusra area, armed with an M16 rifle and pistol, and killed a local Palestinian farmer while he was tending to his land. Qusra villagers responded by throwing rocks at the illegal settlers. The IOF arrested 20 Palestinian Qusra residents, and ruled the settlers killed the Palestinian farmer in “self-defense.” Members of Otzma Yehudit, the Jewish Power party, later attacked Qusra residents in response, severely injuring several Palestinians. At the same attack, the Israeli police also failed to investigate the shooting of one Palestinian teen who was standing on his own balcony, and for months failed to review the plethora of security footage outside his home or question any witnesses.
The International Court of Justice deemed West Bank settlements illegal under international law and found Israel guilty of the crime of apartheid, mandating that Israel dismantle it’s settlements, end it’s illegal occupation, provide full reparations to Palestinian victims, and facilitate the return of displaced people. Despite this, the Israeli government instead has significantly increased its colonizing efforts in the West Bank by expanding the illegal settlements.
Qusra has been under occupation since 1967. Over the years, over 177 dunams of village land was confiscated by Israel in order to build the illegal settlement of Migdalim. They also confiscated land to build the illegal Israeli settler outposts of Ahiya and Esh Kodesh, and bulldozed 400 square metres of the Qusra’s historical stone walls.
Settler pogroms and lynchings against Palestinians like these happen every single day in Occupied Palestine, and the Israeli settlers responsible are rarely ever held accountable. Israel cannot claim to be the side of peace and be the victims of unprovoked attack while this is what life is like everyday for Palestinians living under Israeli apartheid, where violent illegal settler militias lynch Palestinians and burn down their villages in organized pogroms under the protection of the Israeli military and governance.
‘The Israeli soldiers were so happy after the sniper hit Aysenur’: An Eyewitness
September 14 2024 - Muneer Khdeer, a resident of Beita village in the occupied West Bank, witnessed the killing of activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. He described what he saw:
“Every Friday for three years, we have been praying at a mosque in al-Masbah, opposite of Mount Sabih. After prayers, Israeli soldiers follow the young men who are heading home, which leads to scuffles. They fire tear gas and live rounds, and the young men throw stones at them,” Khdeer said.
“That day, the Israelis were firing live rounds towards the Palestinians and foreign volunteers. The two groups were about 300 metres [330 yards] apart, so the stones didn’t hit the soldiers. A sniper was among the soldiers because he placed a weapon on top of the wall. He fired two rounds, and one hit the Turkish woman, Aysenur. An ambulance took her away.
“The Israeli soldiers were so happy after the sniper hit Aysenur because they thought they had hit a Palestinian.”
The Israeli Occupation has murdered 17 Palestinians for protesting the demolition of their village Beita el-Foka since 2020.
– Mohammed Hamayyel, 15 (March 11, 2020) – Islam Dwikat, 22 (April 9, 2020) – Karam Amin Dwikat, 17 (October 15, 2023) – Issa Sliman Barham, 40 (May 14, 2021) – Tareq Ommar Snobar, 27 (May 16, 2021) – Zakaria Maher Hamayyel, 25 (May 28, 2021) – Mohammed Said Hamayyel, 15 (June 11, 2021) – Ahmad Zahi Bani Shamsa, 15 (June 16, 2021) – Shadi Ommar Sharafa, 41 (July 27, 2021) – Imad Ali Dwikat, 38 (August 6, 2021) – Mohammed Ali Khbeissa, 27 (September 24, 2021) – Jamil Jamal Abu Ayyash, 32 (December 1, 2021) – Fawaz Ahmad Hamayyel, 47 (April 13, 2022) – Immad Jareh Bani Shamsa, 16 (October 9, 2023) – Mohammed Ibrahim Adili, 13 (November 23, 2023) – Maath Ashraf Bani Shamsa, 17 (February 9, 2024) – Ameed Ghaleb Said al-Jaroub, 34 (March 22, 2024, died of a bullet wound injury to the head sustained on August 21, 2023)
The murders of Palestinians in Beita by the illegal Israeli occupation is a deliberate attempt to terrorize Palestinians into fleeing and submitting to the illegal demolition of their village. Aysenur Eygi’s vicious and targeted murder brings to light the many Palestinians murdered daily for simply peacefully protesting and protecting their village from destruction by the illegal Israeli occupation and apartheid state, as declared by the highest world courts.
Hamde: “Seeing the Israeli occupation forces last night, raiding the house of my cousins Bassem and Jawaher abu Rahma, who were murdered by the Israeli occupation forces in cold blood, in peaceful demonstrations and seeing how they wake the family up in the middle of the night, to steal their computers and phones and not letting anyone enter or leave, because they declare it a closed military zone, makes me so deeply mad and sad for all what this family have to go through.”
“I don’t know what to say. It’s hard for me to see all the injustice that my family face by living under the Israeli occupation. It’s hard to see part of your family lose their beloved ones and it’s that’s not the only thing. They can’t even have a peaceful night to sleep, because they were born under the occupation. They are forced to live this life because they stand on their land they refuse to leave. It’s hard for me to see the owners prevented from entering the house to see their children, because there are strangers inside blocking the way and declaring it a closed military zone, when in fact they are vandalizing, and stealing computers and phones.”
“They also raided 3 other Palestinian houses in the village where they took their computers and phones as well. But this is the reality in Palestine, you may not know about. This is the life under the Israeli occupation in Palestine.”
Demonstrators wave Palestinian flags in front of Israeli troops as they protest against Israel’s plan to demolish the Palestinian Bedouin village of Khan Al Ahmar. September 30th 2018. EPA
Israeli police officers push down a Palestinian woman and foreign activists as they attempted to prevent the forces from entering Khan al-Ahmar. October 15 2018. (MEE/Akram al-Wa'ara)
Palestinian and Israeli activists jump on top of an Israeli bulldozer as it attempts to clear out the water-filled path that serves as an entryway for military forces into the Bedouin village of Khan al-Ahmar. October 15 2018. (MEE/Akram al-Wa'ara)
OCTOBER 3 2018 - “Israeli settlers flooded Khan Al-Ahmar with waste water, storming the Palestinian Bedouin village and confronting residents.”
“The settlers came from the illegal Israeli settlement of Kfar Adumim, located east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank. They stormed the village of Khan Al-Ahmar but were confronted by international and local activists, along with residents of the village, the Palestine Chronicle reported. However, the settlers “managed to flood the area with wastewater before activists and residents were able to stop them,” the report added.”
“Local Palestinians shared images of the flooding on social media, with the waste water clearly visible against the otherwise arid landscape.”
“Khan Al-Ahmar has been slated for demolition this week, after an Israeli court gave the residents of the village until 1 October to evacuate their homes. The demolition is expected imminently, with the delay thought to be due only to Jewish holidays taking place earlier this week.”
“Israel’s policies of settling Israeli civilians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, wantonly destroying property and forcibly transferring Palestinians living under occupation, violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and are war crimes listed in the statute of the International Criminal Court.” - Amnesty International
Amnesty added: “Since 1967, Israel has forcibly evicted and displaced entire communities and demolished more than 50,000 Palestinian homes and structures.”
Situated east of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, Khan Al-Ahmar is home to Al-Jahhalin Bedouins who are refugees from the Negev desert. They have lived in the area since their displacement by the Israeli army in 1967. Israel has refused to recognise Al-Jahhalin Bedouin communities or grant them building permits, a strategy often used by Israel to term any Bedouin home illegal.
