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QUSRA, West Bank – At least 11 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured by Israeli security forces across the West Bank on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, as fears grow about increasing violence and instability ahead of an expected Israeli land invasion of the Gaza Strip.
In rare scenes for the West Bank, Palestinians raised Hamas flags at a solidarity march with Gaza, defying long-standing political divisions between the Islamist militant group and the West Bank’s dominant Fatah party. Many in the occupied territories spent the day with the news that Israel ordered the evacuation of 1.1 million bombed-out Gazans – stoking Palestinian fears of further mass displacement.
Four of the Palestinians killed on Friday were shot during clashes with Israeli security forces west of Tulkarem, according to WAFA, the official Palestinian news agency. A 14-year-old was killed in “confrontations” near a military checkpoint east of Nablus, WAFA said.
At least 43 Palestinians in the West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces and settlers since Saturday as Hamas gunmen rampaged across southern Israel, killing at least 1,300 people. Palestinians were prevented from leaving the West Bank or traveling between cities. On Friday, Israel’s Route 60, which connects Jewish settlements and divides Palestinian communities, was eerily empty.
All eyes are now on Gaza, where more than 1,700 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced. However, just a week ago, the West Bank was considered Israel’s biggest security challenge.
Israel massed troops in the West Bank. Then Hamas attacked from Gaza.
The 1993 Oslo Peace Accords envisioned the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem as part of a future Palestinian state. Thirty years later, Israel controls most of the West Bank, with some parts administered by the Palestinian Authority. Hamas, the authority’s long-time rival, seized power in Gaza in 2007.
Palestinians are physically separated and politically divided. The collapse of the U.S.-led peace process, increasing Israeli occupation and the aging leadership of the Palestinian Authority have led to widespread anger and disillusionment across the West Bank and allowed new militant groups to rise to prominence.
“The Martyrs of Tomorrow”: Inside a militant Palestinian cell in the West Bank
According to the latest United Nations report, at least 179 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since January, even before the latest wave of violence – making 2023 the deadliest year in two decades.
As Israel intensifies its war in Gaza, settler violence against Palestinians here is escalating.
It is a time of tension and sadness for Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip, where fighting is fiercest. A trip to Jerusalem in the West Bank reveals the anger. (Video: Jon Gerberg, Zoeann Murphy, Lee Powell/The Washington Post)
According to Palestinian officials and family members, armed settlers on Wednesday shot dead three Palestinians from the same family outside their home near Qusra, a small village of about 7,000 people.
The three men were taken to a trauma hospital in nearby Nablus but later died from their injuries. Returning the bodies home meant taking a route partially controlled by the Israelis, said family member Abdulazim al-Wadi, which required negotiations with multiple authorities over permission.
At a crucial point in the journey, as ambulances prepared to move bodies from one side of the road to the other, settlers arrived and began throwing stones.
In the ensuing confrontation, Abdulazim said settlers shot his brother Ibrahim Ahmed al-Wadi, 68, and his nephew, 31-year-old Ahmed Ibrahim al-Wadi.
Qusra is an isolated town that has long been under attack by settlers but is also home to anti-occupation activists from Israel. On Friday, a man checked cars near the village entrance and said no Israelis were allowed.
In a large mourning hall, Abdulazim said he had served on local councils and worked to coordinate with Israeli authorities in charge of the West Bank. He called the military when settlers attacked. These days, he said, the younger generation scoffed at his calls to avoid violence.
“Maybe tomorrow my son will have a different opinion and say, ‘No, no, Dad, I want to kill them like they killed my cousin,'” he said.
“We suffer from the problems,” he added, “as before [Gaza] War.”
With Gaza and Israel at war, the Palestinian Authority is struggling to be heard
The Palestinian Authority, deeply unpopular and widely seen as Israel’s security agent, was largely absent during the war.
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh on Friday accused Israel of “inflicting genocide on our people in Gaza.” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was in Amman for a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Abbas called for an end to “Israeli aggression” and said the forced evacuation of people from Gaza would represent a “second catastrophe for our people” – a reference to the expulsion of Palestinians in 1948, when the state of Israel was founded.
There were clashes with Israeli security forces at a roundabout near the entrance to Ramallah, the seat of Abbas’ government.
“We have come to stage an intifada,” said 26-year-old Anwar Abu Salem, using the Arabic term for an uprising, “for our people in Gaza who are being slaughtered.”
“We want an end to the occupation and the Palestinian Authority and the return of our land.”
Sufian Taha contributed to this report