[ Israeli security forces neglected the defense of communities
near the Gaza Strip because they have been preoccupied with defending
the settlers in the West Bank, their land seizures, and their rites of
stone and altar worshiping.]
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ISRAELI SETTLERS AREN’T PAUSING THE EXPULSION AND DISPOSSESSION IN
THE WEST BANK  
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Amira Hass
October 12, 2023
Haaretz
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_ Israeli security forces neglected the defense of communities near
the Gaza Strip because they have been preoccupied with defending the
settlers in the West Bank, their land seizures, and their rites of
stone and altar worshiping. _

An Israeli soldier stands guard at a checkpoint as the northern
entrance of the Palestinian city of Hebron, Sunday., Credit: Hazem
Bader / Agence France-Presse (AFP) // Haaretz

 

Israeli security forces neglected the defense of communities near the
Gaza Strip because they have been preoccupied with defending the
settlers in the West Bank, their land seizures, and their rites of
stone and altar worshiping.

This is one of the inescapable conclusions to be drawn from the
atrocities
[[link removed]] committed
on Saturday. It comes as no surprise, but this neglect is inherently
connected to one of the chief goals of the judicial overhaul and its
religious Zionist supporters – accelerating the de facto annexation
of most of the West Bank
[[link removed]] and
increasing the Jewish settler population. This goal is not just still
on the table; it will now be even more straightforward to realize.

The Israeli and international media are ignoring the West Bank as the
wrenching testimony of the survivors
[[link removed]] of
Saturday’s attacks gradually surfaces, and as the Israeli military
conducts deadly revenge bombings of Gaza and cuts it off from water,
power, and food supplies.

The lack of attention has allowed the settlers and their enforcement
bodies, official (the military and the police) and semi-official (the
settlements’ security officers and right-wing volunteers acting as
escorts), to escalate their attacks against Palestinian herders and
farmers with a clear goal: to expel more communities from their land
and homes.

Some proof of the volatility of the situation came on Wednesday, when
three residents – two of them teenagers – of the village of Qusra,
south east of Nablus, were killed by live fire
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eight others wounded. Village residents say the shooters were masked
settlers who entered the village on three ATVs. Later, when clashes
erupted following the funerals, another teenager was killed in Qusra,
whether by the army or others still unclear.

A Palestinian WhatsApp group documenting settler attacks in real time,
especially in the area north of Ramallah, shared minute-by-minute
reports on the events in Qusra. This information made its way to the
news in Israel. But other incidents, which do not end up in
casualties, did not. Also on Wednesday, for example, there were
reports of settlers shooting at farmers working in their land in the
village of Marda southwest of Nablus.

At 01:00 A.M. between Sunday and Monday, a message shared in the
WhatsApp group warned, "A group of settlers is leveling a piece of
land on the road connecting the villages of Qusra and Jalud,” in an
area where settlements like Shiloh and Eli and the Esh Kodesh and Adei
Ad outposts are located.

 

People carry the body of a Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes in
the Jabalia refugee camp n the northern Gaza Strip, Monday.  (Credit:
Mahmoud Issa / Reuters  //  Haaretz)
“We don’t know what the nature of the work is because there’s no
electricity,” the message read, “but they could be planning to
destroy one of the agricultural buildings there." It was later
reported that Israelis had destroyed an empty house that appeared to
be owned by a Palestinian citizen of Israel.

At 3:00 A.M., it was reported settlers were trespassing into the
village of Qaryout, west of Jalud, and confronting young Palestinians
who approached them, before the military entered the area and shot at
houses.

A few minutes before 1 P.M., a group of armed settlers trespassing
into the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan in the Salfit Governorate,
southwest of Nablus, was reported. Gunfire could be heard in videos
attached to the alert. One resident reported: “Settlers and three
soldiers tried to expel families harvesting olives. A confrontation
broke out and [the soldiers] shot live fire at the youths and left.”

At 2:30 P.M., a report appeared about a Palestinian lawyer who had
driven out of Salfit and was shot by a security guard or other Israeli
civilian in the settlement of Ariel. The reason given was suspicion he
intended to commit a car-ramming attack.

At 2:35 P.M., a warning came in about settlers shooting at Palestinian
cars near Ni’lin. At 3:30 P.M. came a report about a settler attack
on the town of Einabus, which is west of Hawara and bordered by the
settlement of Yitzhar and its satellite outposts.

"The settlers are trying to enter one of the houses," said the voice
in the attached video, and warned the residents to stay away from the
window. Two residents were wounded by the gunfire, it was later
reported.

At 6 P.M., a report said settlers and soldiers were demanding a family
in the village of Turmus Ayya to leave their home near Shiloh. One of
the family members told the WhatsApp group they refused to leave the
house and that the army had already blocked the road to it the
previous day in any case. The WAFA news agency also reported settlers
throwing stones at Palestinian cars north of Jericho on Monday.

Palestinians’ ability to assist communities under threat is more
constrained than ever before. Since Saturday, the IDF has blocked many
of the entrances and exits to Palestinian cities and villages by
placing concrete blocks and mounds of dirt and locking iron gates
already in place. A Palestinian journalist observed that Israeli
troops were not manning positions near these new roadblocks.

Cities and villages are cut off from one another, with the lockdown
especially tight around those close to Jerusalem. An official at one
international aid agency told Haaretz that traveling between the north
and south of the West Bank is impossible. The road between Bethlehem
and Hebron is nearly inaccessible to Palestinians.

Palestinians who were in Israel on Saturday or Sunday were allowed to
return home through the main checkpoints. Hundreds of Gazans, if not
more, who had been working in Israel were forced to abandon their
workplaces.

 

The Palestinian village of Qaryout.  (Credit: Alex Levac  //
 Haaretz)
They could not return to bombarded Gaza, and while getting
increasingly troubling news about the ordeals of their families, they
were driven to the vicinity of Palestinian cities, including Jenin and
Ramallah, where the authorities host them in public buildings, and
residents in their homes.

The main roads are almost completely devoid of Palestinian-owned cars.
Even those who can find a way out of the towns won’t risk going on
the road.

One of the settlers’ most strident goals is to make Palestinian
vehicles vanish from the West Bank’s main roads. They sometimes
implement this mission by blocking access roads into and out of towns.

At this tense moment, the lockdown on Palestinian towns and the
absence of Palestinian traffic on main roads make it easier for the
military to control the area. And as a byproduct, they actualize the
religious Zionist leaders’ open with and plan of making the
Palestinians disappear.

Residents say each small gathering of a few young protesters near the
checkpoints draws heavier fire than in the past. Armed settlers were
seen engaged in shooting practice on Monday in the Tulkarm area, near
a checkpoint whose soldiers are now absent.

A video settlers posted online describing the arms and ammunition
allocated to them has only heightened Palestinian fears of being
further abandoned to the barely concealed plans of the Israeli
civilians who control their lives.
 

_[AMIRA HASS [[link removed]] is a
reporter and columnist for Ha’aretz Daily
[[link removed]], a newspaper based in Tel Aviv, Israel. She
has been a journalist for two decades._

_Hass, 53, has written critically about both Israeli and Palestinian
authorities. She has not allowed her gender, ethnicity or nationality
– all hindrances in the region she reports from – to obstruct her
from pursuing the truth in her reporting._

_In 1989, Hass quit her studies in history at Tel Aviv University and
began working as a copy editor for Ha’aretz Daily. At the same time,
she volunteered for Workers Hotline, a human rights group dedicated to
reaching out to vulnerable workers, many of whom were Palestinian. She
became acquainted with life in Gaza and grew frustrated about how
poorly Israel’s occupation of Gaza was represented in the Israeli
press._

_By 1991, Hass was writing weekly features for Ha’aretz Daily, and
in 1993, she became a full-time writer for the paper. She moved to
Gaza, which at the time was under direct and full Israeli occupation._

_Hass, now based in Ramallah, has lived in the Occupied Palestinian
territories for nearly 16 years. She has been reporting on the life of
Palestinians under the Israeli occupation and covering the major armed
clashes and Israeli military attacks. Her goal has been to provide her
readers with detailed information about Israeli policies, especially
restrictions on the freedom of movement._

_In the course of her work, Hass has been threatened, harassed and
detained. Most recently, in May 2009, she was detained by Israeli
police on her return from a four-month stay in Gaza “for violating a
military order” (which forbids entry into Gaza) and “for staying
illegally in an enemy state.” She had also been detained in December
2008 by Israeli police on her return to Ramallah for violating the
same military order.]_
 

* Israel
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* Palestine
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* West Bank
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* Palestinians
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* West Bank Refugee Camps
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* Gaza
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* Occupied Territories
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* Jewish settlements
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* Benjamin Netanyahu
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* Nabka
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* apartheid
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* IDF
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* land seizures
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* Ramallah
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* Qusra
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* Nablus
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