To the northwest of Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank’s central part, lies the village of Umm Safa, home to around 750 residents. Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation has closed the village’s entrances, turning it into an open-air prison and making it an easy target for attacks by the illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers.
The village is surrounded by colonies and colonial projects from all directions: “Ateret” to the east, “Halamish” to the west, a colonial road to the south, and land-clearing for colonial expansion to the north.
In recent months, the illegal paramilitary colonizers have intensified their attacks on the village, coinciding with the illegal seizure of its lands and the uprooting of its trees and crops.
The latest attack occurred early Tuesday morning when a group of colonizers from the “Ateret” illegal colony infiltrated the western part of the village and set fire to a vehicle garage, burning three vehicles completely.
Two days earlier, armed colonizers stormed the village at night, firing at homes and properties, preceded by the destruction of the main water line feeding the village and assaults on workers and their vehicles.
Residents believe that these repeated attacks by colonizers, under the protection of Israeli occupation forces, aim to forcibly displace them from their lands for colonial expansion, which threatens their homes and properties.
Marwan Al-Sabah, head of the Umm Safa Village Council, told the Palestinian News & Info Agency (WAFA), “There is a plan to displace the village’s residents and establish a large colony on their lands and homes, connecting it with the neighboring colonies. Umm Safa is the only village whose entrances have remained closed since the genocide war and have not been opened for a single minute.”
Umm Safa covers an area of 4,000 dunams, of which only 300 dunams remain after the aggression, due to illegal measures imposed by the Israeli occupation, mainly the confiscation of Palestinian lands. This is the same area where residents’ homes are located.
Al-Sabah noted that the occupation seized 600 dunams entirely in “Jabal Al-Ras” and established a colonial outpost, preventing dozens of families from accessing their lands. Additionally, daily colonizer incursions into Wadi Al-Zaytoun put anyone at risk.
Furthermore, after the genocidal onslaught on Gaza and the serious escalation in the West Bank, the occupation issued a decision to ban construction in the village entirely, with immediate demolition orders, as happened to a resident who was surprised by a demolition order despite the building being constructed before October 7, 2023.
Al-Sabah continued: “Everyone remembers the colonizers’ crimes when they infiltrated the village, burned dozens of homes and vehicles, and nearly committed a massacre if not for the residents’ resistance. Recently, they closed the village cemetery and threatened residents with death if they approached it or buried a relative. A young man died a day before Ramadan, and the colonizers prevented his burial in the cemetery until intervention from official and international bodies allowed his burial.”
Al-Sabah explained that the village suffers from a water shortage after the occupation destroyed the main water line, in addition to a lack of food supplies due to the closed entrances and the distance for distributors who now ignore the village.
Residents are forced to take a rough road to reach Ramallah, passing through Deir Sudan, Ajjoul, Rawabi, and then Birzeit, a journey of about an hour, while the normal route to Birzeit takes only 5 minutes, placing a heavy burden on them.
The siege and closure pose a danger to residents’ lives, who are forced to go down to the “colonial bypass road” and wait for a vehicle to take them to their workplaces, as happened to a resident who was hit by an occupation vehicle, causing bruises and injuries.
Al-Sabah said: “As a village council, we face significant problems, as we cannot collect garbage or sewage cesspits because the village is completely besieged.”
He added: “We have filed appeals with Israeli occupation courts and approached the International Committee of the Red Cross, consulates, embassies, and representations to open the village entrances, even partially and within certain hours, but the response is always negative, allowing colonizers to continue their rampages and seize the remaining lands.”
The Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission documented 1,705 attacks by Israeli occupation forces and colonizers in February, including 230 attacks by colonizers.
Since the start of the genocide war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, colonizer attacks on Palestinians and their properties in the West Bank have escalated under full protection from the occupation army, resulting in the killing of 25 citizens, in addition to property destruction and the burning of agricultural lands.
On February 22, the United Nations reported an average of five attacks by the illegal colonizers each day over a week, noting the increase in colonizer attacks that caused damage to Palestinian properties and agricultural lands.
This year alone, 102 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire; 50 in Jenin, 18 in Tubas, 14 in Tulkarem, 11 in Nablus, 5 in Hebron, 2 in Bethlehem, 1 in Jerusalem and 1 in Qalqilia.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army and paramilitary colonizers have killed 865 Palestinians, including 180 children: 240 in Jenin, 197 in Tulkarem, 97 in Nablus, 77 in Hebron, 72 in Tubas, 59 in Ramallah, 33 in Qalqilia, 31 in Jerusalem suburbs, 20 in Jerusalem, 4 in Salfit, and 12 in Jericho and the Northern Plains.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel has now killed at least 48,503 Palestinians, including more than 17,881 children and 12,298 women, and injured more than 111,927, mostly children and women. Additionally, thousands of Palestinians are missing, largely under the rubble, in various parts of the devastated Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023.
