Israeli colonizer attacks escalate across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, with coordinated assaults reported from Bethlehem to Ramallah, Nablus, and the northern Jordan Valley, resulting in multiple injuries, property damage, and the temporary detention of several Palestinian residents.
Illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers invaded the area of al-Malha, near the town of Za’tara east of Bethlehem, where they placed an Israeli flag on a concrete wall in what local residents described as a deliberate provocation aimed at asserting control over the area.
The incident comes amid a noticeable rise in colonizer activity around Bethlehem in recent weeks, particularly near expanding colonies.
In Rammun, east of Ramallah in the central West Bank, a group of colonizers attacked the Wadi al‑Ain area on the outskirts of the village and assaulted the resident Mohammad Dawoud Kahla, causing bruises and wounds.
According to activist Jihad al‑Qaaq, the attackers also stole Kahla’s sheep before villagers confronted them and managed to retrieve the flock.
Residents reported that such attacks have intensified, targeting shepherds and farmers to pressure them off their land.
In the northern Jordan Valley, colonizers assaulted a young man in Hammamat al‑Maleh, injuring his foot with a stone after attacking families in the area.
Residents said the assault was accompanied by threats, part of ongoing efforts to force Palestinian communities to leave the region.
Further north, colonizers brought their cattle to graze on Palestinian agricultural lands in Khirbet Yarza, east of Tubas in the northeastern West Bank, causing significant damage to crops, and heightening fears among local farmers.
The attack followed another incident the previous evening in Ein al‑Ghazal al‑Farisiyya, where colonizers sprayed pepper gas at a Palestinian family, continuing a pattern of repeated violations across the Jordan Valley.
In Duma, south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, a Palestinian man was injured when colonizers invaded the ash‑Shajara area east of the village.
According to village council head Suleiman Dawabsha, the attackers assaulted Ali Zawahra and detained him along with four other young men.
Dawabsha added that Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the injured man and simultaneously imposed a closure on the village by blocking its main entrance with a military roadblock.
Dawabsha emphasized that colonizer attacks in the area have sharply escalated, taking advantage of global attention being focused elsewhere. He noted that one of the most recent violations included cutting electricity to the Shakara neighborhood, home to more than 80 residents.
These incidents form part of a broader pattern of coordinated colonizer violence across the occupied West Bank, often carried out under the protection of Israeli forces, and aimed at expanding control over Palestinian land while undermining the safety and stability of rural communities.
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.
