Etzion Brigade Commander Colonel Roman Gofman, on Monday, issued an order to immediately remove all Palestinian workers from the Gush Etzion settlement, including from stores and businesses, according to The Jewish Press. The Israeli military claimed that the order came in order to halt Palestinian stabbing operatives.
But similar moves in the past have been condemned by the United Nations as ‘collective punishment’.
On Monday morning, according to the PNN, an Israeli settler was stabbed and sustained moderate injuries, while the alleged attacker, a 15-year-old Palestinian boy was shot and critically wounded.
On Sunday as well, an unknown attacker has stabbed an Israeli woman in her house in the illegal settlement of Otneil, causing her immediate death. The military claims that the suspect is Palestinian.
Both stabbings took place in illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
This is not the first time Israeli forces has carried out such orders against Palestinian workers.
Following the Douma arson attack that killed three of the Dawabsha family, the army banned some workers from entering specific Israeli-occupied areas to avoid “revenge”.
Since the start of October, some 162 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, under the pretext of stabbing operatives or alleged attempts. At least 30 of the victims were children and seven of them were women.
Some 27 settlers and soldiers have been injured is such attacks.
The uprising came after the attack on the Dawabsha family, on July 31, and the repetitive Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, in addition to the continuous apartheid policies against Palestinians which include movement restrictions, home demolitions, administrative detentions and more.
See: 2015: A Dangerous Escalation at Al-Aqsa Mosque
