Israeli occupation forces abducted a Palestinian man on Wednesday evening after he was injured during an assault carried out by armed illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers in the town of as‑Samu’, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank’s southern part.
Local sources said that a group of colonizers invaded the al‑Kharaba area east of as‑Samu’ and attacked residents with sticks and rifle butts, injuring Ali Mohammad al‑Daghamin with multiple bruises.
Minutes later, Israeli forces arrived, fired tear gas at the residents to secure the colonizers’ assault, and then abducted al‑Daghamin instead of detaining the attackers.
In the Wadi al‑Jawaya community in Masafer Yatta, Israeli forces—accompanied by colonizers wearing military uniforms—invaded the eastern part of the community and stormed the homes of the family of ‘Ayed Obada Shawahin. Soldiers searched the homes extensively and ransacked their contents.
Activist Osama Makhmara said the invasion coincided with an escalation in colonizer attacks east of the community, including releasing their livestock into Palestinian farmlands and conducting provocative patrols around residential areas. Residents say these actions are part of a broader effort to pressure families to leave their land.
The southern Hebron region, including Masafer Yatta and surrounding rural communities, has faced a sustained campaign of violence and displacement by illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers backed by Israeli forces.
Over recent years, colonizer assaults, home invasions, land seizures, and livestock destruction have intensified, with Israeli forces routinely providing protection for the attackers and targeting Palestinian residents instead.
Human rights groups warn that these coordinated actions aim to depopulate the area and expand Israeli control over large tracts of Palestinian land.
In related news, Israeli colonizers attacked Palestinian citizens, including an elderly man, in the area between the villages of Al-Mughayyir and Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah in the central West Bank.
On Tuesday, two Palestinians were injured when Israeli colonizers opened fire on residents of Rashaida village, east of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank, before Israeli soldiers later stormed the area and abducted two young men.
On Monday, the Wall & Colonization Resistance Commission reported that Israeli occupation authorities seized an additional 47 dunams of Palestinian land from Al‑Fandaqumiya and Silat ath‑Thaher in Jenin, and Burqa in Nablus, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank. The seizure expands a military order issued last month.
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.
