General strike in Ramallah after Israeli settler rampage kills three Palestinians

Palestinians in the West Bank governorate of Ramallah observed a full commercial strike on Thursday as a sign of mourning for four Palestinians killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the village of Kufr Malek, northeast of Ramallah City.

On Wednesday afternoon, dozens of Israeli settlers attacked Kufr Malek in groups, setting fire to houses and properties. During the attack, Israeli settlers killed three Palestinians and wounded nine others. The victims were identified as Lutfi Baeirat, 18, Murshid Hamayel, 35, and Muhammad Naji, a teenager. Earlier on Monday, Israeli soldiers shot and killed another minor in Kufr Malek, Motaz Hamayel, 14, after he approached an Israeli-only road outside of the village.

“In the evening, settlers began to arrive at the entrance of Kufr Malek in more than 15 vehicles, and others arrived on foot,” a resident of Kufr Malek who asked not to be named told Mondoweiss. “There were more than 100 settlers, and they began to break into front yards and set fire to houses and cars while throwing rocks at windows, so residents began to come out to confront them, but the Israeli army was close behind.”

“Young men of the village succeeded in pushing the settlers out at the beginning, but then the Israeli army began to open fire without warning, forcing the young men to run,” the resident added. “They were protecting the settlers and allowing them to continue to attack the village. Without the army, the settlers wouldn’t be able to do anything.”

“One of the martyrs was shot in the head by a settler in front of his house,” the resident pointed out. “He was trying to defend his family and the family of his brother, including his little nephews, who were inside. Then the settlers left as they came, probably to another village to do the same.”

Meanwhile, another group of Israeli settlers was attacking a home at the southern entrance of the neighboring village of Taybeh, 10 minutes from Kufr Malek. Settlers broke into the front yard of the rural home, located at a road junction, and set fire to a vehicle and to the surroundings of the house.

“I was sleeping upstairs when I woke up to the smell of smoke,” Eid Abu Fazaa, the owner of the house, told Mondoweiss. “I saw a large black smoke in front of the house. I looked down, and I saw Israeli youths who had just set fire to the car and were trying to set fire to a part of the house.” 

“My sons rushed out, two of them trying to put the fire down, and the others trying to push the settlers off,” Abu Fazaa continued. “The Israeli army wasn’t there and only arrived after the attack was over. One of my sons’ bedrooms was completely burned, and the window of another room as well.”

The three slain Palestinians were mourned in a massive funeral on Wednesday night that roamed the neighboring villages, and were given a second funeral before burial on Thursday.

Systematic settler violence in service of annexation

Settler violence in the east of Ramallah has been consistently increasing since October 2023, with Israeli settlers attacking villages along the eastern countryside of Ramallah and Nablus, bordering the edge of the Jordan Valley and Israel’s Allon Road.

Israeli settlers attacked the village of Mughayyir, directly adjacent to Kufr Malek, several times in the past year and a half, killing at least two Palestinians and wounding and injuring dozens, while destroying livestock structures and making the village’s lands inaccessible.

Settlers also attacked the lands of the village of Duma, a few kilometers to the north of Mughayyir, and have been systematically blocking the entrance to the village of Lebban, next to Duma, once or twice every week for the past month. In addition to violent attacks, settlers have been increasingly herding livestock on private Palestinian land in these villages, imposing their presence and de facto control.

Simultaneously, Israeli settler attacks targeted all the Bedouin communities in the eastern slopes of these villages and towns, expelling all of them. The latest community to be targeted was the 25 families of Maghayer al-Deir, who were forced to leave their lands in late May.

The area where settler violence attacks have been focused corresponds to the “Allon Plan,” drafted in 1970 by Israeli minister Yigal Allon, which proposed absolute Israeli “security” control over the eastern slopes of the Jordan Valley that separate the central West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus and their adjacent villages from the Jordan Valley.

In 2019, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented a plan to annex the Jordan Valley as part of his election campaign. His plan was built on the same borders delineated by the Allon plan.

Although the Israeli government officially dissociates itself from settler attacks, key Israeli ministers and politicians are known faces of the settler movement and its more violent manifestations, such as National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Minister of Settlements, Orit Strook.

Shortly after October 7, 2023, Ben-Gvir filmed himself distributing firearms to Israelis, including Israeli settlers, and posted the footage on X. In November, the security committee in the Israeli Knesset reported that Israeli settlers in the West Bank possessed 165,000 firearms.

In February of last year, the Biden administration imposed sanctions on individual Israeli settlers for violence against Palestinians, which the Trump administration later revoked. At the time, Israeli media reported that some Israeli government bodies might find themselves affected by the sanctions, because they were implicated in the establishment of illegal outposts set up by sanctioned settlers.

Since 2023, Israeli settlers and the army have killed over 1,000 Palestinians and wounded over 7,000 in the West Bank, while demolishing 3,844 properties, including 1,376 homes.. The past year has also seen the displacement of over 40,000 Palestinians in the West Bank.