Ramallah, West Bank taken over – Palestinian Saeed Alyan Awad was on his way to land with his wife when 10 Israeli settlers attacked them near the illegal settlement of Mitzpe Yair.
The land of the Awads is east of the city of Yatta, south of Hebron, and the family goes there every Saturday in an effort to stop the Israelis from expanding their site to their building.
One of the attackers, with an iron pipe, broke Saeed’s skull and broke his leashes on March 10, while his wife suffered hard brushes on her leg. With the children and nephews of Awad screaming in horror inside their vehicle, the settlers moved towards them and destroyed the windshield and blew it with rocks.
“The attack on my family and I lasted about seven minutes,” Awad, 49, told Al Jazeera. “My face was throbbing and I lost consciousness for a few minutes. I underwent surgery to reattach my left jaw and heal the wounds on my face. “
Young Palestinian men in the area heard their screams and saw the settlers attack and came to their rescue. The Israelis returned from sight and soldiers from the Israeli army arrived, giving Awad first aid. The soldiers watched, however, as the settlers left without being held.
“The army should have arrested the settlers but they did not, even though it was certain that they had attacked them and tried to kill me,” Awad said.
The Awads vehicle crashed after it attacked Israeli settlers last Saturday [Naser Nawajaa/B’Tselem]
Although he filed a complaint at an Israeli police station at the Kiryat Arba’a settlement on Wednesday, he said he expects no justice.
This was the latest in a series of escalating attacks on Palestinians by groups of Israeli settlers traveling in the West Bank.
According to the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, 94 brutal attacks against Palestinian civilians took place between 21 December 2020, to 13 March 2021 – a figure never seen before.
The group accused Israeli security forces of not stopping the attacks and said Israeli police routinely close criminal protests that the victims dismiss without anyone being subjected to it. accusation.
The violent uprising against Palestinians seems to have been sparked after the death of Ahuvia Sandak, 16, from the Bayt Hayen settlement in the southwest bank. He died when the car in which he was riding collided with four other Israelis when he fled with Israeli police east of Ramallah. The settlers were searched after undercover officers were seen throwing rocks at Palestinian vehicles on December 21.
According to Israeli media, Sandak belonged to a group called the “Hilltop Youths”, which is accused of invading Palestinians and their property.
“Since Sandak’s death, the settlers’ brutal attacks against Palestinians continue every day – on average two or three attacks a day,” said Ghassan Daghlas, a Palestinian official who oversees settlements in the Nablus government.
He said the settlers have also forced them to close major roads in the West Bank cities of Nablus, Tulkarm, and Jenin.
Violence includes “physical attacks against Palestinian shepherds and farmers while working on their land, attacking and invading Palestinian houses at night, and scattering iron nails on the streets to damage Palestinian vehicles, “Daghlas said.
‘They wanted to go away’
Izz al-Din, 44, from the town of Majdal Bani Fadel south of Nablus, said he and his father were beaten when they went to work on their farm last month.
“As we arrived and left our vehicle, we were struck by two settlers hiding among the parked vehicles with a wooden baton on our heads, arms and legs. We started screaming until a group of people from our town … hurried us and saved us from the hands of the settlers, ”al-Din told Al Jazeera.
“Israeli police near the scene of the incident did not arrest the settlers, despite seeing signs of their attack on us and our swelling. They took them (the attackers) to their pickup vehicle and told them to leave, while we got in an ambulance for medical treatment. If we were the invaders, we would be in prison now. But being settlers, they are cheap. “
Israeli military has told Al Jazeera that its authority is limited to separating the two sides when fighting takes place, saying it has no power for settlers living on the West Bank. arrested, detained or investigated, which is the responsibility of the Israeli police.
Munir Kadus, a researcher with the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din, described the recent attacks as “an unprecedented escalation of violence against Palestinians across the West Bank”.
Between 2005-2019 the group recorded 1,293 acts of settler violence against Palestinians with only 8 percent of investigations into these incidents leading to criminal charges.
An official from one of the councils that controlled Israeli settlements in the controlled West Bank said it was not just violence perpetrated by Israelis.
“[We] oppose any manifestation of violence against anyone and we want that [Israeli] left-wing groups will go against and criticize the stone and throw a Molotov cocktail with Palestinians against Israeli and civilian vehicles, ”he told Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity.
Approximately 500,000 Jewish settlers live in over 250 illegal settlements in the West Bank.
Idan Zendi, an Israeli from the Ma’ale Adumim settlement, described the area as “Israeli land, not Palestine”.
“Palestinians have a lot of land to live in – Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt – they have a lot of land. We only have one land, ”Zendi said in an interview with Anadolu news agency.
Israeli settlers throw stones at Palestinians in the West Bank town of Safa in April 2009 [File: Abed al-Hashlamoun]‘Security disorder’
Some Palestinians have warned that escalating violence by the settlers could lead to bilateral attacks, especially when it comes to brutal attacks or mosque firing.
One former Israeli official said it was necessary for Israeli police and the military to attack settlers before the situation grew out of control.
“Israeli security forces must take decisive and effective measures to prevent any unrest between settlers and Palestinians, as it is in the interests of Israeli security to maintain a calm and stable state, without creating security disorder through settler violence against Palestinians, “David Chacham, an Arab affairs adviser for Israel ‘s defense ministry, told Al Jazeera.
Settlers on the West Bank, long dependent on Israeli troops for defense, have now set up their own security force in every town, working hand in hand with the Israeli army. .
“It is the responsibility of the Military Security Coordinators to conduct communities regularly and in emergencies until they reach [Israeli military] or Israeli police forces, ”the Israeli military told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“The [Israeli military] working closely and regularly with the Military Security Coordinators and even training them once a year. They are directly obedient to the area in which they are employed. “
Palestinians have considered creating their own local defense forces in towns and cities that are open to attacks by settlers at night. Palestinian businessman Bashar Masri has campaigned to install surveillance cameras to monitor Palestinian small towns.
“Settlement attacks against Palestinian civilians are growing and we need to stop them and expose the brutality of the settlers to the international community,” Masri told Al Jazeera.
“Technology is a great way to give Palestinians an early warning of attacks and to expose the often unprepared settlers for their violence.”
It remains to be seen, however, whether security cameras alone will be sufficient to stop the settler attacks.
From his hospital bed, Awad told Al Jazeera that he had paid nearly $ 40,000 to a lawyer to represent him in an Israeli court against settlers who wanted to seize his land. .
“The PA (Palestinian Authority) and its security forces will do nothing to help us,” he said. “I will tell the PA if they do not help the citizens living in Area C who are under attack settlers again, we may have to leave our land, and the settlers will take them. “