Israeli authorities set up three new roadblocks at the Ras al-Ain hill in the northern occupied West Bank village of Qusra on Wednesday, raising fears among families stuck in their homes. Abdel Hakim Wadi knew he was about to lose access to his land below once and for all.
The roadblocks’ gates – large yellow and orange metal bars placed on two large concrete blocks – are infamous in the West Bank. They are placed at the entrances of many, if not most villages, and have multiplied since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023. The only ones holding the keys are the Israeli forces. Israeli soldiers had already placed a gate at the main entrance of Qusra itself, forcing Palestinians traveling into the village to take alternative routes – but often find those closed as well.
Three homes in this area of Qusra have been besieged by Israeli settlers since August 9, attracting global attention and condemnation. Israeli forces have declared the area a closed military zone, but have effectively continued the siege, with locals trapped in their homes. And now, instead of lifting the siege, the roadblocks erected by the Israelis have been placed in carefully-selected locations.
Abdel Hakim Wadi told Al Jazeera that they were pushing the Israeli settlers 100 to 150 metres away from their houses, but now they had established checkpoints, adding that it constituted a much more permanent siege.
One of the gates was erected at the entrance of the house of Loui Ridi, a Palestinian-American who lives in Ohio, but who returned to Qusra to defend his property after the siege began. Israeli soldiers are stationed outside his home, which he has not been able to leave since his arrival on August 17. Another roadblock is slightly further up the hill near a house under construction, and a third one is to the left side above.
Ynet Report on Qusra and Jalud
Israeli occupiers are increasingly using siege tactics, violence and intimidation to expel Palestinians from their homes and land in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s Ynet news portal reported Monday. The recent siege of a Palestinian home in the West Bank town of Qusra — which drew international attention — was far from an isolated case,
Ynet reported, adding that Israeli youths from illegal settlement outposts regularly block access to Palestinian villages and pressure residents to leave.
Within the past two weeks, Israeli occupiers, often protected by Israeli military personnel, have surrounded three Palestinian homes in Qusra, into which they have prevented the delivery of basic necessities, according to Ynet. In the village of Jalud near Nablus, Mahmoud and Aida Tubasi said they had left their homes after months of threats, arson, stone-throwing and roadblocks by Israeli occupiers.
Mahmoud Tubasi told Ynet that no water, flour, or rice was allowed into the village, and that they knew it was over, so they left.
According to the report, the Tubasi family can still see their homes from the nearby residence to which they were forced to flee. Tubasi said the occupiers had doused the doors of their homes with fuel before setting them alight, erected a structure nearby, threw stones, played loud music at night and threatened the family.
He added that they told them they would burn them like the Dawabshe family, referring to a 2015 arson attack in the West Bank village of Duma that killed an 18-month-old Palestinian child and seriously injured his parents and four-year-brother. Both parents later died of their injuries, while the surviving child suffered burns on 60 percent of his body and is now living under the care of relatives.
According to Ynet, the case is part of a wider pattern of violence by Israeli occupiers, who set up outposts inside areas nominally under Palestinian administration before waging campaigns of intimidations.
Islam Ahmed Ajouri Killing in Askar Refugee Camp
Israeli forces have shot and killed a Palestinian teenager in the occupied West Bank, as the European Union joined growing global concern over Israel’s plans to build a new illegal settlement that would split the territory in two. Israeli forces shot 14-year-old Islam Ahmed Ajouri in the chest during a raid on the Askar refugee camp in Nablus on Sunday, according to the Wafa news agency.
The killing came as violence by Israeli forces and settlers surges in the occupied West Bank, as Israel gears up for a general election in October. According to Wafa, Israeli forces also shot a 25-year-old man in the town of Burqa, near Ramallah, wounding him in his foot. He was subsequently arrested. Israeli forces also arrested several Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank, including the city of Qalqilya and the Tulkarem, Jenin and Nablus governorates.
Separately, Israeli forces raided and sealed off the village of Al-Awja, north of Jericho, after an Israeli man in his 20s was stabbed and moderately wounded at a nearby commercial complex. The suspect fled the scene, the Israeli military said.
According to Al-Awja village council head Hani Najoum, soldiers trapped residents inside their homes, forced shops to close, searched homes and collected surveillance footage from private residences and businesses. The Israeli military confirmed launching large-scale raids, setting up roadblocks in and around the village, and increasing police presence, saying it remains in constant contact
with local residents and security forces.
The Palestinian group Hamas claimed the attack on Al-Awja, saying it was a response to what it called Israeli violations and military operations in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian territories, as well as an escalation of violations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem, and stated that this operation demonstrated that their people were determined to resist the occupation in every part of Palestine, despite all the challenges.
Invasions in Hebron and Bethlehem
Israeli occupation forces carried out multiple invasions, abductions, and assaults across the occupied West Bank on Saturday, targeting residents in Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Jenin, while imposing widespread movement restrictions through military roadblocks and road closures. In Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers abducted eleven Palestinians after invading several towns and breaking into homes, searching them, damaging property, and assaulting residents.
The abducted individuals included Tareq Aziz Ghraib from Tarqumiya; Murshid Abdul‑Mahdi Tmeiza, Ismail al‑Nattah, and Abdullah Adli Sawwad from Ethna; and Ahmad Eyad at‑Tarawa, Qusai Mohammad at‑Tarwa, Anas at‑Tarawa, Adwan Awni at‑Tarawa, and Esmeir at‑Tarawa from Sa’ir. Anti‑colonization activist Osama Makhamra said Israeli forces also abducted elderly resident Ibrahim Ismael al‑Jabour and his son Anas from their home in Khirbet Huwwara east of Yatta, after they confronted illegal paramilitary Israeli colonizers who released livestock around Palestinian homes.
In a separate incident, armed colonizers, under the protection of Israeli soldiers, released livestock around the home of Ibrahim al‑Jabarin in Shu‘ab al‑Batem in Masafer Yatta and attempted to assault his family. Israeli forces installed multiple military roadblocks at the entrances of Hebron city, its towns, villages, and refugee camps, and closed several main and secondary roads with iron gates, concrete blocks, and earth mounds.
Earlier Saturday, a Palestinian man was shot by Israeli soldiers during their pursuit of Palestinian laborers in the Wadi al‑Hummus area east of Bethlehem in the southern occupied West Bank. Mohammad ‘Allan, head of the al‑‘Ubeidiya ambulance service, said Israeli forces chased laborers and opened fire at them in the area located between the village of al‑Khas east of Bethlehem and the occupied Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Baher. A man in his thirties from Sa’ir, north of Hebron, was shot during the incident.
Продолжение темы
