Israeli occupation forces abducted, on Friday, Fuad and Diab Omar al‑Jabour from the Huwara area in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, after the soldiers detained several Palestinian residents who were attempting to stop illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers from raising Israeli flags on privately owned Palestinian land in an effort to impose control over it.
Osama Makhamra, a media activist in Masafer Yatta, stated that the abductions occurred during verbal confrontations between residents and the colonizers, who continued their assaults under the protection of Israeli forces. At the same time, Palestinians tried to defend their land and property.
Makhamra added that Masafer Yatta has been witnessing daily attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers, including invading agricultural lands, assaulting residents, damaging property, and setting up tents and raising Israeli flags in an attempt to impose a new reality on the ground and forcibly displace the population.
He noted that Israeli forces consistently protect the colonizers while preventing Palestinians from accessing their own land.
Makhamra stressed that despite repeated abductions and assaults, the residents of Masafer Yatta continue to stand their ground and defend their land amid an escalating wave of colonial violence aimed at erasing Palestinian presence in the area.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147, prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
