Several Palestinians were injured and one woman was killed on Friday, as a wave of Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians and their homes has swept across the occupied West Bank.
On Friday afternoon Palestinian media outlets reported that a Palestinian woman was killed after an Israeli settler allegedly rammed their car into her on a main highway outside the village of Sinjil, north of Ramallah.
Wafa News identified the woman as 63-year-old Ghadeer Fuqaha Masalmeh from Sinjil.
Sinjil’s mayor reportedly wrote on Facebook that Masalmeh and her husband were standing by the entrance of the town, which is located near a major throughway connecting Ramallah and Nablus, waiting for a taxi when an Israeli license-plate car rammed into her “before speeding away in a deliberate hit and run attack.”
According to the Times of Israel, the Israeli driver who hit Masalmeh fled to the nearby Shiloh settlement, where he allegedly reported the incident to Israeli police. Quoting police, the Times of Israel said the settler, “was briefly questioned by officers, and his vehicle was impounded pending further investigation.”
The settler was reportedly released, but was summoned for “further investigation.”
As for the reason he fled the scene, “the man told officers he feared to stop near the West Bank town following the incident,” the Times of Israel wrote.
Masalmeh is the third Palestinian to be killed in the West Bank over the past week. Earlier this week, 22-year-old Hikmat Abdul Aziz Mousa was killed after Israeli forces shot at his vehicle, allegedly causing it to crash and catch on fire, killing Mousa.
Hours later, Israeli forces shot and killed 26-year-old Mohammed Abbas as he was driving in the al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah.
Settler attacks continue unabated
Masalmeh is the latest victim of a wave of settler violence that has swept across the West Bank, following the killing of an Israeli settler last week outside the illegal Homesh outpost.
Following the shooting of the settler, Israeli forces embarked on a widespread manhunt for the alleged perpetrators, eventually arresting at least three Palestinians from the town of Burqa, which is located near Homesh.
Since then, Israeli settlers have perpetrated a series of revenge attacks on Burqa and the surrounding villages that have injured several Palestinians and caused damage to their property.
Such attacks have continued across the West Bank over the course of the past week, and escalated on Thursday after thousands of settlers and right-wing leaders marched past Burqa and the surrounding towns on their way to Homesh, where the settlers called for revenge on Palestinians and the official reestablishment of the outpost, which was evacuated in 2005.
The march led to confrontations between Palestinians from Burqa and armed Israeli soldiers who escorted the settlers on their march. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that 42 Palestinians, including one journalist, were wounded after being hit with rubber-coated steel bullets, while another 83 suffered from suffocation after inhaling tear gas fired by the army.
Hours later, in the middle of the night, Israeli settlers reportedly descended on Burqa, attacking several homes with rocks and attempting to break into homes on the outskirts of the village.
“The escalation of settler terror against our people in the West Bank will be confronted with the escalation of acts of resistance, and the occupation army and its settlers will pay the price for these crimes,” Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
“The continuation of comprehensive resistance in all its forms, especially armed ones, is the practical and real response to the crimes of the occupation and settlers,” the Hamas movement said in a separate statement.
2021 has seen a staggering rise in settler violence, with UN OCHA reporting at least 450 settler attacks against Palestinians and their property as of December 6th. According to OCHA documentation, of those attacks, 118 of those incidents resulted in the death or injury of Palestinians.
According to B’Tselem, 2021 saw a rise in settler violence of 28.6 percent compared to last year.
Despite a clear rise in settler attacks on Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett recently said otherwise, calling settler violence a “marginal” issue.
The “settlers” have always been the “informal” front line of the ethnic cleansing operation.
These are Israel’s front line terrorists, that do the attacking, burning, stealing, and killing, that the IDF cannot openly do. They are armed and supported by the Israeli Government. All part of the Master plan to get rid of the Arabs, and take over the territories that their greedy hearts desire. These are terror crimes, state sanctioned terrorists, that most probably US tax payer money supports. Who in their right mind thinks that the mighty IDF cannot control these terrorists? If the Israeli government wants to, they can definitely do, but they don’t seem to care, and despite all the warning signs, are deliberately looking the other way. Their convenient terrorist killers.
This has gone for too long and it is getting bolder and worse. Let us not forget that poor family who were burnt to death, including their baby, while they were asleep by these Israeli terrorists, and later celebrated at a wedding with the baby’s picture being stabbed by these criminals. What has changed since then? A very racist and vicious nation, that hides behind America’s support and protection. The US State Department has labelled them terrorists, and we should refer to them as such and not sugar coat it.
When I was there, with Christian Peacemaker Teams (you don’t have to be a Christian!), we had a briefing by a woman from ICAHD, who said she didn’t use the word “genocide” to describe what was going on – she was waiting till it actually started.
Maybe the time has come. Maybe it has actually started. Piecemeal, retail not wholesale, but genocide.
So will this vehicular killer be killed and his body not returned to his family? Oh no, of course not, he’s Jewish.
And as a bit of seaonal cheer, here’s a Christmas story from Stuart Littlewood.
https://www.redressonline.com/2021/12/this-christmas-remember-how-israel-desecrated-the-church-of-the-nativity/