On Wednesday, July 9, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary settlers launched numerous attacks on Palestinian communities in the West Bank.
This is in addition to the ongoing Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, in which over 73 people were killed on Wednesday alone.
The following attacks by Israeli forces and by Israeli paramilitary settlers were documented by local sources on Wednesday:
11:59 PM
Seventeen Palestinians were injured, including three with live bullets, Wednesday evening, during a settlers’ attack on the town of Aqraba and the neighboring Khirbet al-Tawil, south of Nablus.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that it treated three citizens who were shot with live ammunition in their lower extremities, one aged 39 and the other 40, following a settler attack on Aqraba and Khirbet al-Tawil.
A Wafa news correspondent said that 14 citizens, including a child, sustained bruises after being assaulted by settlers in Khirbet al-Tawil. They were transferred to the clinic in the town of Aqraba, before being transferred to Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus. The Ministry of Health described their condition as stable.
The correspondent added that the occupation forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the site of the clashes in Al-Khirbet, and that coordination was made with the Red Cross to transport the injured.
Local sources reported that the settlers stole hundreds of sheep from the village, belonging to citizens Muhammad Fawaz Bani Maniya and Hazem Wassef Bani Jaber. They also burned a vehicle inside the town and vandalized citizens’ tents and property in Khirbet al-Tawil.
Israeli paramilitary settlers attacked the town of Surif, northwest of Hebron, Wednesday night, where they assaulted residents, and set fire to agricultural lands.
The Wafa news agency said that a number of Israeli settlers attacked residents in the Batwat area, near the Beit Ein settlement, which was built on Palestinian land.
The sources added that the settlers carried out a series of attacks against the residents and set fire to agricultural lands.
Later, the occupation forces stormed the town and chased the citizens who were trying to repel the settlers’ attack, leaving two of them with bruises.
According to the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, settlers carried out more than 2,153 attacks in the first half of this year, resulting in the deaths of four citizens.
The settlers’ attacks ranged from assaulting Palestinian villages and civilians, to burning homes and shooting at citizens, to establishing colonial outposts, seizing citizens’ lands, and attacking their vehicles.
Also Wednesday at night, Israeli occupation forces stormed the Deheishe refugee camp, south of Bethlehem. Security sources told Wafa news that occupation forces fired sound bombs and tear gas at residents of the camp, and assaulted a kiosk owner on the Jerusalem-Hebron road.
In addition, Israeli occupation forces stormed Kafr Qaddum village, east of Qalqilya, on Wednesday evening.
Local sources told Wafa news that the occupation forces stormed the village from its main entrance and deployed throughout its neighborhoods, without any reported raids or arrests .
Also, Israeli occupation forces stormed on Wednesday evening the town of Kobar, north of Ramallah.
Local sources reported that Israeli occupation forces stormed the town and fired sound bombs and tear gas at residents’ homes, without any arrests or injuries being reported.
9:18 pm
A number of Palestinian citizens suffered suffocation and bruises when the Israeli occupation forces stormed the towns of Al-Khader, south of Bethlehem, and Tuqu’, southeast of the governorate, on Wednesday evening.
A security source told Wafa news that the occupation forces stormed Tuqu’, took up positions around the municipality building, and fired a barrage of tear gas and sound bombs, causing a number of citizens to suffer from suffocation, and they were dealt with on the ground .
The Israeli forces raided several neighborhoods in the town of Al-Khader, firing sound bombs and tear gas at residents. They also raided the home of the Abu Ghalyoun family and severely beat their children, who were subsequently taken to the hospital.
This raid is part of a series of ongoing raids carried out by the occupation forces in towns and villages in the Bethlehem Governorate, amid a marked escalation in the frequency of attacks and repressive practices against citizens.
Israeli occupation forces stormed Qalandia camp, north of occupied Jerusalem, and abducted a number of young men:
7:30 pm
Israeli occupation police arrested a number of foreign solidarity activists on Wednesday while they were trying to confront settlers’ attack on the village of Shallalat al-Auja, north of Jericho.
The Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights reported that settlers stormed the village, roamed among residents’ homes, and deliberately brought their sheep onto agricultural land and the surrounding areas, destroying crops and the residents’ source of livelihood .
Palestinian citizens and foreign activists attempted to remove the sheep from the homes and prevent the attack, but the occupation police quickly arrived at the scene, provided protection for the settlers, and arrested a number of activists.
Local sources noted that this was not the first time that sheep had been used as a tool of pressure against the population, but rather was part of a systematic policy aimed at oppressing the residents and forcing them to leave .
The scene is now recurring almost daily in the Jordan Valley, where attacks on residents are on the rise amidst a lack of accountability for settlers, deepening the suffering of the residents and threatening the stability of their daily lives.
Occupation forces storm Wadi Abu Katila area in Hebron:
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli occupation forces (IOF) abducted two brothers from the town of Meithalun, south of Jenin. Local sources said that Israeli occupation forces stormed the town, raided the home of the two brothers, Marwan and Mahmoud Ismail Na’irat, and searched it before abducting them from inside.
Also, Israeli paramilitary settlers set up tents on Wednesday on lands of Beit Umrin village, northwest of Nablus.
Murad Ishtiwi, director of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in the northern West Bank, told WAFA that settlers had set up about four tents on the lands between the villages of Burqa and Beit Umrin, which indicates that they are the nucleus of a new colonial outpost in the area.
He added that the establishment of such a colonial outpost comes within the framework of expansion and linking large colonial blocs together, in strategic and important locations, stressing that since the beginning of this year, 23 new settlement outposts have been established in the area.
Israeli settlers, under the protection of the Israeli occupation forces, on Wednesday set up three mobile homes in Jabal al-Rahma in Hebron.
Local sources said that the Israeli occupation forces and settlers erected these homes in the Jabal al-Rahma area adjacent to the Tel Rumeida settlement, in order to use them for settlement purposes and to extend their control over more of the area’s lands, large areas of which have been confiscated by the occupation and are subject to strict security measures, in order to displace citizens from them .
Earlier, the Israeli occupation forces erected three more houses in the Khazaf al-Far area and the Ataq market in the Old City of the city, as part of the expansion of settlement outposts and the strengthening of settlement in the Old City.
Israeli occupation forces demolished, on Wednesday, 8 houses and 2 barns in the cities of Ramallah, Jerusalem and Nablus.
In the city of Ramallah, occupation bulldozers demolished four houses and two barracks in the town of Shuqba, northwest of Ramallah .
Adnan Shalash, head of the Shuqba village council, told WAFA in a phone call that the occupation forces stormed the eastern part of the village and demolished a 180-square-meter house belonging to Salama al-Masri, inhabited by three people. Fifty meters away, they demolished another two-story house belonging to his sons Moataz and Hani al-Masri, each floor measuring 150 square meters. They also demolished two agricultural barracks and walls around the houses .
He added that the occupation bulldozers also demolished the home of citizen Ziad Zayed Hassan, which is 200 square meters in area, and a house consisting of three apartments inhabited by six people .
Shalash pointed out that the occupation forces emptied the homes of their contents and destroyed them before carrying out the demolition operation.
Occupation bulldozers also demolished the home of Khaled Abu Allan in the village of Umm Safa, northwest of Ramallah. The occupation authorities have been preventing him from reaching his home, located near the colonial outpost established by settlers since the middle of last year. They also uprooted dozens of fruit trees and filled in a water well owned by Abu Allan about two months ago.
In Jerusalem, the occupation forces demolished two houses in the town of Silwan, south of Al-Aqsa Mosque .
Local sources reported that Israeli bulldozers stormed the town’s Al-Thawri neighborhood and demolished the home of Tariq Shuwaiki, as well as another home belonging to the Burqan family in the town’s Wadi Yasul neighborhood. The bulldozers also demolished the walls surrounding the house.
In Nablus, the occupation forces demolished a house in the town of Rujeib, east of Nablus .
Security sources told WAFA that several Israeli occupation patrols, accompanied by a military bulldozer, stormed Rujeib and demolished a two-story home belonging to Khaled Al-Saksik, after forcing his family to evacuate.
It is noteworthy that the occupation authorities demolished 588 facilities in the first half of this year, causing harm to 843 citizens, including 411 children. During the same period, they issued demolition notices to 556 facilities, including 322 inhabited homes, 18 uninhabited ones, 151 facilities classified as agricultural, and 97 facilities classified as sources of livelihood, among others.
