Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers intensified their attacks on Friday in the southern areas of al‑Mughayyer, east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank, firing live ammunition and invading Palestinian grazing lands under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, who also abducted several international solidarity activists.
Residents said the colonizer invaded the al‑Khalayel and al‑Khalila grazing areas, firing shots in the vicinity of Palestinian herders in a recurring pattern of intimidation aimed at residents and their property.
During the assault, one colonizer physically attacked members of the Abu Hammam family in al‑Khalayel.
Following the attack, Israeli police dispatched a military patrol from a nearby illegal colony toward ‘Ezbet Abu Hammam.
Israeli forces then invaded the hamlet after being summoned by the colonizers involved in the assault, reinforcing their presence across the surrounding area.
Occupation forces and police expanded their deployment in al‑Khalayel and abducted four international solidarity activists as they attempted to document the attacks and support local families.
Residents reported that Israeli forces also broke into homes, seized surveillance cameras, and restricted movement throughout the area. Witnesses said soldiers operated in clear coordination with colonizer groups, who remained nearby during the entire operation.
Friday’s escalation reflects a broader pattern of coordinated attacks by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers and Israeli occupation forces across the occupied West Bank—particularly in rural communities around Ramallah, Nablus, and Hebron—where grazing lands, agricultural areas, and isolated hamlets have become frequent targets.
On Thursday, Israeli colonizers assaulted an elderly Palestinian man in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, and installed five caravans near Beit Sahour, east of Bethlehem, in the southern occupied West Bank.
On Wednesday, illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers carried out multiple attacks across the West Bank, targeting education staff, agricultural land, and residential areas in Tubas in the northeastern West Bank and Ramallah in the central West Bank.
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.
