Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers attacked the Ma’azi Jaba’ Bedouin community north‑east of occupied Jerusalem on Saturday, assaulting residents and destroying property in yet another escalation targeting vulnerable Palestinian communities in the Jerusalem periphery.
The Jerusalem Governorate said colonizers stormed the community, vandalized residents’ belongings, and killed several heads of livestock belonging to local families.
The attack caused widespread fear among the roughly 200 residents of the community, which includes about 40 families and nearly 70 children under the age of eighteen, all living in harsh conditions lacking basic services and infrastructure.
Bedouin communities surrounding occupied Jerusalem continue to face relentless attacks by colonizers and Israeli occupation forces as part of a policy aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians from strategic areas.
These communities, including Ma’azi Jaba’, Khan al‑Ahmar, Jabal al‑Baba, and others along the Jerusalem–Jericho corridor, are repeatedly targeted to clear land for colonial expansion and large‑scale settlement projects.
The latest assault on Ma’azi Jaba’ comes amid a broader surge in colonizer violence across the occupied West Bank.
In addition, six Palestinian families in the village of Aqqaba, east of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank, dismantled their homes and tents on Saturday in preparation for leaving the area, following a sharp escalation in attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers.
Also Saturday, Israeli colonizers killed a Palestinian young man, Amir Mohammad Shanaran, 28, and critically injured his brother, Khaled Muhammad Shanaran,33, during an attack in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank.
On Friday, Israeli colonizers carried out a series of assaults across the occupied West Bank, targeting children, shepherds, farmers, solidarity activists, and journalists in multiple communities from the northern Jordan Valley to the central and southern regions, while Israeli occupation forces provided protection and directly participated in several of the attacks.
Last Monday, two Palestinian civilians were killed and five others, including a child, were wounded by live ammunition on Monday during an attack by armed Israeli colonizers on the village of Qaryut, south of Nablus, in the northern West Bank.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed the deaths of two brothers: Muhammad Moammar (52), who was shot in the head, and Fahim Moammar (47), who died after being shot in the pelvis.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, occupation forces and settlers have killed 1122 Palestinian citizens in the occupied West Bank, including 232 children and 24 women.
In the Jenin governorate, 310 Palestinians have been killed, while 213 were killed in Tulkarem, 144 in Nablus, 110 in Hebron, 98 in Tubas, 82 in Ramallah, 62 in Jerusalem, 44 in Qalqilia, 36 in Bethlehem, 15 in Jericho and the Jordan Valley, and 8 in Salfit, according to the Shireen Observatory.
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.
