On Friday evening, Israeli soldiers invaded Sinjil town, north of the central West Bank city of Ramallah, and seriously injured a young man as Palestinians were fending off an attack by a group of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers who also burned an entire Palestinian farm.
Media sources reported that several paramilitary colonizers invaded the Jabal At-Tal area in the southern part of Sinjil, prompting locals to intercept them in an attempt to force them to leave.
The colonizers also hurled stones at several Palestinian cars in the Oyoun Al-Haramiyya area before Israeli soldiers closed the street and opened fire on the Palestinians, wounding a young man in the chest.
Medical sources confirmed that the Palestinian is in critical condition due to gunshot wounds to the chest.
Ahmad az-Zein, who owns the farm with his brother, told Al-Jazeera that the colonizers chased the family and hurled firebombs at his farm, burning it to the ground.
Al-Jazeera Video
“They [the colonizers] hurled bombs and I fled, and then they chased me, but I managed to run away. They then hurled bombs at the farm,” he stated, adding, “This is where we had a living room with couches and seating arrangements. I worked all my life to build and maintain my farm… now it is all gone.”
Motaz Tawafsha, the Mayor of Sinjil, told Al-Jazeera that the locals tried to force the colonizers out of the area, but the colonizers assaulted the Palestinians and burned their property.
“Unfortunately, this has recently led to burning homes, property, and the death of one Palestinian after the colonizers burned his home,” Tawafsha said.
In recent days, colonizers have escalated their violations against Palestinians in the area, burning farmlands, agricultural structures, and storage facilities, as well as stealing sheep and installing an outpost.
The colonizers are reportedly attempting to terrorize Palestinians to force them out of the area, enabling the expansion of their outpost through the illegal annexation of more land and the forceful removal of the indigenous Palestinian population.
In related news, Israeli colonizers invaded Khirbet Samra in the northern Jordan Valley and placed Israeli flags near Palestinian residents’ tents.
Human rights activist Aref Daraghma reported that a group of colonizers stormed the area, roamed among the residents’ homes, and placed Israeli flags nearby.
The northern Jordan Valley has been witnessing daily assaults by colonizers, which have recently intensified in both frequency and severity.
These violations include attacks on residents and their homes, intimidation, chasing shepherds, preventing access to grazing lands, and stealing or harming livestock.
On Monday evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry announced that the citizen, Wael Basem Mohammad Ghafri, 48, died after exposure to toxic tear gas fired by the occupation army who were protecting illegal Israeli colonizers during their invasion of Sinjil.
Earlier Friday, a group of illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers invaded a Palestinian olive orchard in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, and uprooted olive saplings.
Furthermore, Israeli forces fatally shot a Palestinian teen in the village of Salem, east of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.
Media sources said that occupation forces critically injured a child after shooting him in the chest with live ammunition during a military incursion into Salem village, on Friday afternoon.
Sources added that the child, Abdul Khaliq Musab Jabour, 16, was rushed to hospital for his critical injuries where doctors attempted live-saving cardiopulmonary resuscitation which was unsuccessful; later pronouncing him dead.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian child, Mahmoud Mithqal Ali Abu Al-Haija (12 years old) in the town of Al-Yamoun, west of Jenin.
On Sunday evening, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Information Office released a statement announcing that another Palestinian detainee has died in Israeli custody, the second in less than one week.
The statement added that the wounded detainee, Nasser Khalil Mohammad Al-Radaydeh, 49, died on Sunday, after being transferred to the Hadassah Hospital from Ofer Prison.
Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 963 Palestinians, including 194 children, 21 women, 15 elderly individuals, one journalist, and two medics since October 7, 2023.
In the Gaza Strip, Israel has killed at least 50,240 Palestinians, including more than 15,626 children, 9,807 women, 235 journalists, and 23 medics. At least 116,931 people, mostly children, women, and the elderly, have been injured.
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 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power [Israel] shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies [Palestine].” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
