A 75-year-old Palestinian man from the village of Umm al-Khair in the South Hebron Hills in the occupied West Bank died on Monday, after succumbing to wounds he sustained when he was run over during an Israeli police raid last week.
Suleiman al-Hathalin, or ‘Hajj Suleiman’ as he is known by locals, passed away on Monday morning in a hospital in Hebron, where he was in critical condition since he was run over earlier this month. The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed his death in a statement.
Hajj Suleiman was a pillar of the community in the Masafer Yatta area of the South Hebron Hills, and an icon of anti-occupation resistance, and was widely known across Palestine, as he was frequently photographed facing off against Israeli soldiers during demonstrations in Umm al-Khair and the surrounding villages.
He sustained critical injuries when a flatbed tow truck, contracted by Israeli police, ran over him during a police raid on Umm al-Khair on January 5th, during which the police seized a number of unlicensed vehicles in the village.
He suffered from a fractured skull, and serious injuries to his spine, ribs, and hip.
At the time, Hajj Suleiman’s family and fellow activists accused Israel of an “assasination attempt” against the popular activist, saying they held Israel fully responsible for the “deliberate attack.”
Local activists said that the truck, which was allegedly being driven by a privately contracted Israeli settler, purposely ran into Hajj Suleiman, who was standing on the side of the road when he was hit.
According to eyewitness testimony, the truck immediately fled the scene, followed by Israeli police, who did not stop to call an ambulance or offer Hajj Suleiman medical assistance.
“At the end of the day, I believe Hajj Suleiman was deliberately assassinated by the Israeli occupation,” Fouad al-Amour, an activist from the South Hebron Hills and a friend of Hajj Suleiman told Mondoweiss after his death.
“What happened was not an accident, and the occupation alone is responsible,” he said.
Al-Amour added that although Hajj Suleiman is gone, his legacy will “live on forever in Masafer Yatta, through us, our children, and our children’s children.”
Hajj Suleiman is the 5th Palestinian to be killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since the beginning of 2022.
Earlier this month, on January 6th, 21-year-old Bakeer Hashash was shot by Israeli forces during a night raid on the city of Nablus. On the same day, 25-year-old Mustafa Falaneh was killed after he was run over by an Israeli settler outside of Ramallah.
On January 13th, 80-year-old Omar Abdulmajeed Asaad died of a heart attack after he was violently detained by Israeli forces in the middle of the night, who left him out in the cold in an abandoned building, unconscious with his hands tied.
On Monday, just hours after Hajj Suleiman was pronounced dead, Israeli forces shot and killed another Palestinian, Faleh Jaradat (age unknown), at a junction near the Hebron-area town of Sa’ir, claiming he was attempting to carry out a stabbing attack.
