Israeli settler attacks fuel fire as Gaza war rages –

Israeli settler attacks fuel fire as Gaza war rages – Portal

  • 121 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed since the Hamas attack
  • Increasing settler violence in the West Bank worries Israel’s allies
  • Father and son are killed at the funeral for three children shot by settlers

QUSRA, West Bank, Nov 2 (Portal) – Mohammed Wadi mourns the loss of his father and brother and says armed Israeli settlers from outposts overlooking his West Bank olive-growing village no longer aim low when firing on Palestinian neighbors. “Now they shoot to kill,” he said.

Violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which had already reached its highest level in more than 15 years this year, continued to rise after Israel launched a new war in the Palestinian militant group Hamas in response to the deadliest day in Israel’s history The separate enclave of Gaza was overthrown on October 7th.

Days later, on October 12, Wadi’s father and brother were shot dead when armed Israeli settlers and soldiers stopped a funeral procession for three other Palestinians killed by settlers the day before, two Portal witnesses and three others present said. It was one of more than 170 attacks on Palestinians involving settlers that the UN has recorded since Hamas’ rampage.

“Arabs and Jews used to throw stones at each other. The settlers my age all seem to have automatic weapons now,” said Wadi, 29, in the olive-growing village of Qusra. And while armed settlers fired their weapons to scare or wound villagers during clashes a decade ago, shootings have become increasingly deadly, he said.

Portal could not definitively determine who shot the wadis. Palestinian officials investigating the funeral killings said the shooting appeared to have come from settlers rather than soldiers, a view supported by the three other people present.

Shira Liebman, head of the Yesha Council, the largest settler organization in the West Bank, told Portal that settlers were not involved in the killings and were not targeting Palestinians.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, one of at least two senior government ministers living in the settlements, said he ordered the purchase of 10,000 rifles to arm Israeli civilians, including settlers, after the Hamas attack.

Ben-Gvir’s office did not respond to a request for comment on whether weapons had already been distributed in the West Bank. He said on Twitter on October 11 that 900 assault rifles had been distributed in areas north of the West Bank near Lebanon and that thousands more would be distributed soon.

Vigilante-style attacks by settlers have killed 29 people this year, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). At least eight of these have occurred since October 7 alone, worrying ordinary Palestinians, Israeli security experts and Western officials.

Washington has condemned settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, while the European Union on Tuesday condemned “settler terrorism” that risks a “dangerous escalation of the conflict.”

Daily settler attacks have more than doubled, according to UN figures, since Hamas, which controls the coastal enclave of Gaza in southwest Israel, killed 1,400 Israelis and took more than 200 hostage. Since then, Israel has bombed and raided Gaza, killing nearly 9,000 Palestinians.

While Hamas tightly controls the besieged Gaza Strip, the West Bank is a complex patchwork of mountain towns, Israeli settlements and army checkpoints that divide Palestinian communities.

In its rampage, Hamas pointed to Israeli actions in the West Bank, the centerpiece of a possible Palestinian state.

FUNERAL MURDERS

After settlers shot three Palestinians in an olive grove near Qusra on Oct. 11, Mohammed’s brother Ahmed and father Ibrahim saw it as their duty to greet the funeral procession that brought the bodies back from a nearby hospital, he said.

Wadi’s father was shot through the torso and his brother through the neck and chest after the armed settlers, attended by uniformed soldiers, blocked the funeral procession on the side of the road, the five witnesses said.

“It was settler shooting,” said Abdullah Abu Rahma, who works for the Palestinian government’s Settlement and Wall Resistance Commission.

The Israeli military said it was trying to contain clashes between Israelis and Palestinians that day and that the incident was being investigated. Settlement official Liebman denied settler involvement in the killings, while a local Hebrew-language social media page supporting settler activists said the Israeli military had fired on the wadis.

“We have experienced more than our share of brutal terrorist attacks. We face an enemy that wants to destroy us,” settlement leader Liebman told Portal, reflecting widespread security fears among Israelis following the Hamas incursion.

Liebman said “local security teams” were equipped to protect Jewish communities.

Since the Oct. 7 shooting, visible support for Hamas has increased among Palestinians in the West Bank, including in areas where the Islamist group is not traditionally strong.

This year has already been the deadliest for West Bank residents in at least 15 years, according to the United Nations. About 200 Palestinians and 26 Israelis were killed. But in the three weeks since the October 7 attack alone, another 121 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank.

Clashes with soldiers have claimed the most lives.

However, the actions of Israeli extremists are further fueling Palestinian resentment, which observers say could lead to further armed actions.

The Israeli military said it was trying to contain violence and protect Palestinian civilians. “It harms security here. These … incidents are leading to further clashes and they are people who have taken the law into their own hands,” a spokesman said in response to Portal questions about settler attacks.

‘GREAT DANGER’

With the ongoing Gaza war and the increasing power of right-wing politicians, it is becoming increasingly difficult to contain settler-related violence, according to Israeli security experts.

“There is a great threat from far-right activists in the West Bank,” said Lior Akerman, a former official with Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency.

Settlers took advantage of the deployment of soldiers in Gaza and northern Israel, where troops are fighting Lebanon’s Hezbollah, to carry out unhindered attacks, he said. “The army is even busier now, which allows (settlers) to operate freely.

“They also receive support from government officials… which makes it difficult for security organizations,” he added.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appointed far-right ministers, including Ben-Gvir, to his cabinet last year in a bid to secure another term.

A senior Israeli government official, who did not want to be named, said: “Sporadic Palestinian terrorism (in the West Bank) makes it harder to keep things under control.”

In a sign that the settler incidents are troubling the Israeli security establishment, the Defense Ministry this week ordered the administrative detention of Ariel Danino, a prominent settler activist, on state security grounds, an action that usually targets Palestinian activists.

“GIVE US WEAPONS”

Wadi’s family has close ties to the local community. He says the family avoids armed action and has seen settler hostilities increase.

He works for a Palestinian government agency that monitors violence by soldiers and settlers.

His father, Ibrahim, was a local official who tried to mediate between Israeli and Palestinian authorities to reduce violence and was unpopular with radical settlers, Wadi said.

Akerman said settler violence risked provoking armed actions by a new generation of Palestinian militants who have emerged in the West Bank. One, The Lion’s Den, called for attacks on Israel on Tuesday.

A Portal witness said that at the funeral, which eventually took place after the Wadi killings on October 12, Palestinian gunmen sat on a roof and watched the proceedings, apparently looking for violence from settlers.

There has been no major action so far as the Israeli military stifles Palestinian movement across the West Bank and arrests hundreds of men.

Last week in Qusra, Wadi sat under a poster commemorating his brother and father and checked Hebrew-language social media sites on his cell phone for death threats against local Palestinians.

He said he felt surrounded. Opposite Qusra stands a fortress-like settlement surrounded by a large wall, and two others sit on hills above the village’s olive groves.

Abdullah, a local resident who only gave his first name, expressed even more anger. “I am ready to pick up a weapon. If only someone would give us some,” he said.

Additional reporting by Emily Rose in Jerusalem, Ali Sawafta in Ramallah; Edited by Frank Jack Daniel

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