Settlers attack village in West Bank

On the evening of 10 March, masked Israeli colonial settlers carried out a violent attack in the village of Hamamat al Malih, in the Northern Jordan Valley.

They came back presumably to kidnap the residents

Journalist and human rights activist Andrey Khrzhanovskiy, better known as Andrey X, arrived in the village to find 70-year-old resident Abu Raed severely beaten and struggling to stand. Two hours earlier, settlers had stormed the place and found Abu Raed alone. So they viciously attacked him, then left the area. Abu Raed, like most of the Palestinians living there, has also previously been attacked by settlers. Just two nights before this attack, they also smashed the windows of his home and completely destroyed its contents.

The settlers returned, while Andrey X was still in the village. Armed with knives, sticks and rocks, they smashed the activists’ car, slashed all four tyres, and then chased them.

Andrey X, Abu Raed, and a 70-year-old solidarity activist, barricaded themselves in a house, but the settlers broke down the door and repeatedly attacked all three of them. Andrey X says he was thrown to the ground, then beaten and kicked in the face and head. He believes the settlers had other intentions when they returned to the village.

When they broke into the house and started attacking us, they had plastic zip ties in their hands, literally ready to use. My assumption is that they were planning  to kidnap the Palestinians. They saw there were no activists in the village two hours before, so they came back presumably to kidnap the residents. But I’m assuming that because we were there, they decided to just attack us instead.

Israeli occupation police claim, as always, there is no evidence the settlers have done anything wrong

The settlers then left the area, but not before taking Andrey X’s phone to ensure there would be no evidence of their attack. But shortly afterward, at around the same time as the police, they returned again, this time unmasked, and in different clothing. Unsurprisingly, the ‘Israeli’ occupation police did nothing, and said there was no evidence that the settlers carried out the attack. An Israeli ambulance also arrived, and at first refused to treat Abu Raed, saying “he is an Arab, what can we do.” Eventually it took him away, and transferred him to a Palestinian ambulance.

There is a military base next to the village and an outpost three kilometres away, to the north. According to Andrey X, that is where the settlers come from every day, to terrorise not only the residents of Hamamat al Malih, but also other nearby villages. While settlers in the Jordan Valley have historically been less physically violent towards Palestinians than in places such as Masafer Yatta, or East Ramallah, this is no longer true.

He says:

This changed instantly when the war with Iran started. There are now daily pogroms, with beatings and hospitalisation. They’ve been escalating their violence further and further, since the election of the current government. So when they see they can get away with more, then they escalate even further. Our activist colleagues who have infiltrated settler group chats say they’re openly saying to each other that now everyone’s distracted, this is their chance. They say they need to escalate and take as much as possible, while all attention is on the war with Iran.

Andrey X tells us that daily attacks occurred in Hamamat al Malih in the week leading up to this attack. And the day before, settlers had destroyed CCTV cameras, solar panels and windows in the village. He says it is no longer safe for Palestinians to stay there if there are no activists, or only a few residents present. The women, children, and livestock have already gone, because of the sustained violent attacks.

Commander of IOF Jordan Valley Brigade to Palestinians: ‘It’s better for you to leave than for us to expel you’

With their growing confidence, brought about by the inaction of the international community, attacks by these zionist colonisers have dramatically increased, and become more violent. According to a new report from 13 March, by the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, settlers carried out 192 attacks during just the last two weeks of the Israel-US war on Iran. These actions are encouraged by the occupation. On 8 March, Gilad Shriki, Commander of the Jordan Valley division of the Israeli occupation forces (IOF), went to every remaining community in Area C of the Jordan Valley.

He threatened them, saying:

This is Area C, a military area, so you have to get out of here. It’s better for you to leave than for us to expel you.

More than 60 percent of the West Bank is in Area C. This means it is under complete “Israeli” control. The occupation is currently carrying out a campaign of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians living in this area. This includes those living in the Jordan Valley, 90 percent of which is in Area C.

These illegal settlers are aided and protected by the IOF, and armed by the Israeli occupation government. They work together for the benefit of the Jewish supremacist state of Israel, with the aim of ethnically cleansing the occupied Palestinian territory of all Palestinians. Not a day goes by that a Palestinian family is not displaced, a Palestinian home is not set alight or a Palestinian is not seriously injured or even killed. The forcible transfer of residents of an occupied territory is a war crime under international law. It is time the inaction of the international community came to an end, and the Israeli occupation is held to account for its countless crimes against Palestinians.