On Friday, Israeli soldiers attacked the weekly procession against the illegal colonialist activities in Sbeih Mountain in Beita town, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, and abducted a child in nearby Douma village.
Media sources said dozens of Palestinians marched in Beita and Beit Dajan and headed to Sbeih Mountain before the soldiers attacked them with live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, and gas bombs.
Medical sources said several Palestinians suffered the effects of tear gas inhalation, cuts, and bruises before the medics treated them.
The soldiers attacked the protesters after dozens of colonizers, headed by the fanatic “National Security Minister,” Itamar Bin-Gvir, invaded the mountain under heavy military deployment and called on the army and the Israeli government to initiate a large-scale offensive in the West Bank to kill what he called “thousands of terrorists.”
His statements in a press conference he held with the head of the so-called “Samaria Regional Council of Settlements,” Yossi Dagan, and Daniella Weiss, the head of the fanatic colonialist movement “Nachala,” which encourages the takeover of Palestinian lands to build and expand the illegal Israeli colonies.
Also, the soldiers attacked the weekly procession against the colonialist activities in Beit Dajan, east of Nablus, and fired many rubber-coated steel bullets and gas bombs, causing many to suffer the effects of tear gas inhalation.
The soldiers also invaded Douma village, south of Nablus, and abducted a child, Osama Bilal Salawda, at a carwash facility in the village and took him to an unknown destination.
The Palestinians have been holding ongoing processions on their lands in Sbeih Mountain in Beita and in Beit Dajan after a group of illegal Israeli colonizers installed an outpost atop the Mountain.
The soldiers injured thousands of Palestinians during these protests and killed several others, including children.
The Mountain, owned by the Palestinians, has significant strategic importance, especially since if the colonizers occupied it, the colony would lead to the annexation of 20 Dunams of Palestinian lands and would also lead to the isolation of a large area of Palestinian lands.
In related news, the soldiers attacked the weekly procession in Kufur Qaddoum, east of Qalqilia in the northwestern West Bank, and injured many Palestinians.
Both Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention and the International Criminal Court Rome Statute prohibit settlement activity.
Article 8(2) of the Rome Statute, ‘the transfer, directly or indirectly, by an occupying power of parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies, or the deportation or transfer of all or parts of the population of the occupied territory within or outside this territory’ are unlawful.
From 1978 until 2019, the United States State Department also considered Israeli settlements unlawful.
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 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.”
“As the occupier, Israel is therefore forbidden from using state land and natural resources for purposes other than military or security needs or for the benefit of the local population. The unlawful appropriation of property by an occupying power amounts to “pillage”, which is prohibited by both the Hague Regulations and Fourth Geneva Convention and is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and many national laws.” Amnesty International
