CNN –
Ibrahim Wadi, 62, and his son Ahmad, 24, were on their way to a funeral for four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli settlers in their occupied West Bank community when their car was attacked.
Father and son were driving through the small village of Qusra south of Nablus, which had become a flashpoint of violence in recent days, when they themselves came under fire from armed settlers on Thursday. Family members told CNN that the men were taken to a nearby hospital and died from their wounds soon after.
According to the Palestinian Health Ministry there, they are among at least 61 people, including children, who have been killed in the occupied West Bank since Hamas launched its unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on October 7. More than 1,250 were injured.
The Hamas attack killed more than 1,400 people in Israel, most of them civilians, with at least 199 believed to be held hostage in the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli authorities.
According to the Health Ministry in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, Israel responded by announcing a “full siege” of the enclave and carrying out widespread airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing at least 3,478 people, and threatening a ground invasion. Meanwhile, tensions are rising in the West Bank, where Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces and settlers.
Hani Odeh, the mayor of Qusra, told CNN that the settlers were moving freely in the village under the protection of Israeli police. He said he told a member of COGAT, Israel’s coordinator for government activities in the territories, that he would attend the funeral along with Ahmad and Ibrahim.
A few hours earlier, the Israeli official told him to take a different route than he normally takes to avoid settlers in the area. But to Odeh’s surprise, the road they were diverted onto was full of settlers who ended up shooting Ahmad and Ibrahim in their car.
Odeh told CNN he watched the attack from his own vehicle while Israeli soldiers patrolled the street. He went to an official and urged him to disperse the settlers, but no one did anything. He said it felt like a trap.
CNN has reached out to COGAT and the IDF for comment on Odeh’s claims but has not yet received a response.
Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, Israeli military spokesman, said last week that the military was on high alert in the occupied territories, adding it was preparing to thwart possible attacks. “Anyone who challenges us in Judea and Samaria will face enormous violence,” Hagari said, using the Jewish biblical names for the West Bank.
CNN spoke to residents in the West Bank who say they fear a wave of violence from the Israeli military and security forces, as well as revenge attacks from the estimated 700,000 Israeli settlers living in the area. The latest killings come against the backdrop of a year that has seen a surge in settler attacks in the West Bank, including one that an Israeli military commander described as a “pogrom.”
Even before the war with Hamas, things were simmering in the West Bank. After a wave of Palestinian attacks on Israelis last year, Israel launched regular incursions and raids in the West Bank, targeting what it said were militant strongholds. The resulting violence resulted in record numbers of Palestinians and Israelis dead, a figure not seen in at least a decade.
Days after deadly violence in Qusra, home to around 7,000 people, residents are still in turmoil. Photos commemorating the six people killed adorn the walls of houses and buildings. A desolate emptiness fills the air.
Burned cars, broken water pumps and ransacked power lines surround a home on the edge of the village where the first four murders took place. Inside, the floor is littered with glass and the walls are covered in bullet marks.
Armed settlers attacked the building on October 11, prompting calls for help from residents. When several neighbors arrived at the scene, the settlers opened fire and four people were shot: Musa’ab Abu Raidi, 19, Obaida Abu Srour, 18, Hassan Muhannad, 22, and Moath Odesa, 29.
Inside the home, Rabeea, 19, and her brother Abdulrahman, 12, watched in horror as the attack unfolded. The siblings, who asked CNN not to use their last names for fear of reprisals from Israeli settlers, recounted how settlers threw rocks and shot at the building while they hid inside with their mother.
Her older brother and his 6-year-old daughter were injured and had to be treated at a nearby hospital. Odeh, the mayor, told CNN that they were among 12 people hospitalized after the attack.
Rabeea said her brother couldn’t sleep at night; He’s too scared to be alone. CNN caught up with the family as they packed their belongings and prepared to move to another village.
“I feel so bad. I want to cry, but what can we do?” She said. “I want to stay here, but we can’t do anything.”
You’ve been here before. Seven years ago, Rabeea and Abdulrahman said their father was shot by Israeli settlers near Nablus. Fear of attack forced her family to move to Qusra. Now they are too scared to stay and are forced from their home again.
Since Israel took control from Jordan and occupied the West Bank in 1967 after the Six-Day War, the area, which residents hope will be part of a future Palestinian state, has been populated by Israeli civilians, often under military protection.
Most of the world considers these settlements illegal under international law, but several Israeli governments have nevertheless pledged their support. Israel considers the West Bank a “disputed territory” and claims its settlement policy is legal.
This year, following the election of the most right-wing and extremist government in Israeli history under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there was an outbreak of violence between settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank.
As of mid-September this year, the United Nations had reported 798 settler-related incidents in the occupied territories, in which 216 Palestinians were injured. During the same period, Israeli forces killed 179 Palestinians in the West Bank.
The IDF says most of them are terrorism suspects or people who use force during raids with its troops, but does not provide evidence to support this claim in all cases.
Settlers have long been accused of committing acts of violence against Palestinians. In addition to killings, these attacks also resulted in physical assaults, property damage and harassment.
Odeh stressed that her goal is to drive Palestinians from their homeland and ultimately from the occupied West Bank.
This year, amid international criticism, Netanyahu ordered Jewish settlers not to take land in the West Bank without permission from the Israeli government. But under his leadership, Israel has approved a record number of housing units in West Bank settlements.
Members of his far-right government, including National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who are themselves settlers, have been accused of inciting violence against Palestinians since coming to power.
Following the October 7 Hamas attack, Palestinians’ freedom of movement in the West Bank and between the West Bank and Israel are subject to severe restrictions, with Israeli forces imposing a complete closure of checkpoints and roadblocks, according to several local residents who spoke to CNN.
Palestinians living in the West Bank told CNN that the closure has significantly disrupted their daily lives, limiting their ability to travel to work, school, medical treatment and other essential activities.
In a phone call with US President Joe Biden on Saturday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for an end to settler attacks on people in Palestinian towns, villages and refugee camps in the West Bank, while stressing the need to end the killing of civilians on both sides to stop .
At the home of Ibrahim and Ahmad, who lived just a short drive from the attacked home in Qusra and in full view of an invading Israeli settlement, their families – wives, daughters and sisters – mourned on Sunday.
“Thank God we are strong. And God willing, we will continue to have strength and patience,” Khitam Wadi, Ibrahim’s wife and Ahmad’s mother, told CNN.
“My husband loved his country. He defended his country. And we will continue to do so as long as we live,” she added.
Clearly shaken, Khitam found it difficult to describe her grief. But the younger women in the family stubbornly persevered despite their pain.
“Of course I’m sad. All of this affects me, but not so much that it weakens me. We have experienced the same thing all our lives, nothing has changed,” said Aseel, Ahmad’s sister and Ibrahim’s daughter.
“This is our home. My father taught me to love my country. I will teach this to my children too. And I will stay as long as I live.”