The deadliest attack on Israeli territory since 1948 is also reverberating in the West Bank. With a total of more than 2,700 dead, the scale of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s incursion into Gaza on Saturday, with killings and kidnappings and subsequent bombings, dwarfed the number of 31 Palestinians killed in the territory, mostly in clashes with soldiers. In less than a week, one-sixth of all Palestinians have lost their lives in the West Bank so far, in a year that has already been the bloodiest there in two decades. No Israeli military or civilian died there.
All this is happening as religious ultra-nationalism (the most radical among the half-million settlers) calls for revenge for Saturday’s massacre and the leader of Hamas’ political bureau, Ismail Haniye, urges the West Bank to move toward the “great victory.” Ending the Jewish state began in Gaza. The Israeli military is strictly restricting movement between cities and protests in which Palestinian youths have thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers. Hamas posters and flags can also be seen where there were none before.
Dozens of people attend the funeral of four Palestinians who died in clashes with Israeli settlers in the village of Qusra (West Bank).ALAA BADARNEH (EFE)
What happened in the last 48 hours in the village of Qusra, near Nablus, would make local news under different circumstances. Armed settlers shot dead three Palestinian civilians on Wednesday, according to the Health Ministry. A video from the crime scene shows masked men opening fire with automatic weapons. A day later, another settler killed Ibrahim Wadi, 63, and his son Ahmad, 26, by shooting at the car in which they were traveling to their neighbors’ funeral. “The army promised me that it would guarantee our safety and finally pushed us and protected the settlers. I gave my word to the neighbors as the person responsible. Suddenly we found a huge group of settlers and the soldiers behind them,” said Qusra Mayor Hani Odeh, who attended the funeral by telephone.
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“The Day of Vengeance”
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The day before, a call with a time and location to avoid the funeral circulated in WhatsApp groups, criticizing the military authorities for “closing their eyes and imagining that the Nazis in the West Bank were different from the Nazis in Gaza.” “”. I also have a picture of nine masked young people with bats, an ax and a can of gasoline, accompanied by a text in Hebrew and Arabic: “To all the rats in the sewers of the city of Qusra: We are waiting for you and we will.” no mercy on you. The day of revenge has come.” When asked, the Bundeswehr assured that the incidents were being investigated.
Islam Sarafandi, 28, was traveling with his parents on Sunday on the road that connects a checkpoint near the city of Ramallah to the Yalazon refugee camp when he said he came near an olive grove. “Suddenly, very quickly and with huge stones in their hands, several settlers appeared, hiding behind the trees. I accelerated to the limit. I almost collided with two other cars who were also trying to avoid them, and I managed to avoid the first one, but two of them rear-ended me. I was on the verge of losing control of the car,” he explains. They were armed, but none of them opened fire, he added.
According to the Palestinian Authority Health Ministry, around 600 Palestinians have been injured since Saturday. About 190 required hospitalization. Signs of support for the Hamas attack have emerged in an empty West Bank but where incidents occur. A poster paying homage to the Islamist movement now hangs in the median of the road leading from the Kalandia checkpoint to the town of Al Bire. The background is the silhouette (his appearance is unknown) of Mohamed Deif, representative of the most violent and irredentist branch of Hamas and mastermind of the attack that sparked the conflict in the Middle East. A green flag of the fundamentalist group hangs at the entrance to the Yalazon refugee camp north of Ramallah.
“God and Stones”
A few kilometers away, the residents of the town of Beitín, which borders the Ofra settlement, have been taking turns since Saturday, so that at least three people are always standing with stones at each of the four entrances. “They were there before, but now there are much more and more organized,” explains one of them, Mohamed Hamed. A dozen gather in the largest shift. “We only have God and stones,” he clarifies. There were no clashes, he says, because the Israeli forces – which the Palestinians usually accuse of passivity and collusion with the settlers – had significantly increased their presence and prevented them from approaching Beitín.
Ayman Al Yamal has also experienced change since Saturday. He runs a gas station in Al Huda, the largest Palestinian gas station network. It is located on a strategic roundabout in Al Bire which is usually full of young people. They go to their kebab restaurants, burger joints or cafes to smoke hookah, especially on Thursday evening (the weekend is Friday and Saturday). This Thursday there will be no young people or queues for petrol and all shops will be closed.
Al Yamal says that every day since Saturday he has seen a group of up to 100 settlers coming to throw stones at Palestinian cars. Since the checkpoint has been closed in both directions since Saturday, they are next to an alternative road to the north that the Palestinians are forced to take. “They used to come to the roundabout once or twice a week at most. There were fewer of them and they stayed for about 30 minutes with the soldiers at their side and then they left,” he says in his office at the gas station.
Several Israeli soldiers guard the northern entrance to the Palestinian West Bank city of Hebron on October 8. DPA via Europa Press (DPA via Europa Press)
Normally congested streets are almost empty. The normally open checkpoints – the West Bank has been under military occupation since 1967 – now prevent Palestinians from getting from one city to another. Of the three crossings between Jerusalem and the West Bank, only the one normally used by settlement residents is open.
The absence of the usual background noise of horns makes it possible to clearly hear the helicopter urgently transporting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to Amman. It was chartered to Ramallah by the King of Jordan, Abdullah II, to hold an urgent meeting on the situation ahead of Abbas and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit there this Friday.
In addition, an incident this Thursday has raised alarm bells about the spread of violence to Jerusalem. Two police officers were injured, one of them seriously, in a gun attack on a police station in front of one of the entrances to the old town. The attacker was shot.
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