Israeli occupation forces shot and wounded four Palestinian civilians on Saturday evening in the town of ar‑Ram, northeast of the occupied Palestinian capital, Jerusalem, in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) confirmed that two men, aged 47 and 27, sustained live‑fire injuries to their lower limbs near the illegal annexation wall and were transferred to hospital for treatment.
Earlier the same evening, two other young men from Salfit were also shot near the wall in ar‑Ram and evacuated for medical care.
The shootings form part of a wider pattern of systematic targeting of Palestinian workers and civilians around the apartheid wall.
A day earlier, Israeli soldiers invaded the town and assaulted a young man, causing various cuts and bruises.
On December 1, Israeli forces shot a 30‑year‑old man in the leg while chasing laborers attempting to cross near al‑Ram.
Two days later, on December 3, occupation soldiers opened fire again, wounding two workers — one transferred to Shaare Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem, the other to Ramallah Hospital.
Local sources and humanitarian agencies have documented dozens of similar incidents in recent weeks, underscoring the deliberate use of live ammunition against unarmed civilians.
According to the General Union of Palestinian Workers, at least 42 Palestinian laborers have been killed since October 2023, either by gunfire, falls from the wall, or during military chases.
More than 32,000 workers have been arrested in the same period under the pretext of lacking permits.
Rights groups argue that this policy amounts to collective punishment and a violation of international humanitarian law, as the wall itself has been declared illegal by the International Court of Justice.
The repeated invasions of al‑Ram highlight the dual function of the wall: not only as a tool of land confiscation and settlement expansion, but also as a site of daily violence against Palestinians seeking livelihood.
Human rights advocates stress that the shootings near ar‑Ram are not isolated incidents but part of a systematic campaign to enforce dispossession and control, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the occupied West Bank.
