WEST COAST A Palestinian father of four was shot while he was spending Saturday with his relatives at his olive grove.
Attacks by Jewish settlement radicals against Palestinians have intensified in the Israeli-occupied West Bank at the same time as the world’s attention is focused on the war in Gaza.
Father of four children, Bilal Salehdeath is one example of this.
Saleh lived with his family in the village of As-Sawiya in the northern part of the West Bank near the city of Nablus. He was shot on October 28. The shooter is suspected to be someone who is off duty of a colonial soldier.
Life in a Palestinian village surrounded by Israeli settlements has become cramped since the October attack by Hamas, Saleh’s widow Ekhlas Saleh tells .
The radicals living in the settlements have, among other things, threatened the residents of As-Sawiya with violence and burned their olive trees.
October-November is harvest time in the West Bank, when Palestinians traditionally gather with the whole family and clan to collect the olive harvest.
As the encounters with the settlers had become increasingly tense, the family decided that Saturday morning would be a good time to harvest.
– At that time, the Jews celebrate the Sabbath, so we did not expect unpleasant encounters in the olive grove, says Ekhlass Saleh.
A sunny day took a dark turn. Men from the nearby settlement of Rehelim began to approach. The family decided to leave the harvest unfinished and leave the olive grove.
– Bilal said he forgot his phone by the olive tree and told me and the children to go ahead. We left, and soon we heard shots behind us, says Ekhlass Saleh.
Saleh says at first he thought someone was firing warning shots into the air.
– Later we heard that Bilal was found lifeless under an olive tree with a gunshot wound in his chest.
Parts of the incident were recorded on videos shot by the villagers who were there.
The Israeli army has previously said an Israeli newspaper for Haaretz, that Saleh’s shooting was preceded by a clash between settlers and Palestinians. Saleh’s family denies this.
Attacks are becoming more frequent and violent
Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal under international law. However, Israel has expanded them in such a way that the areas inhabited by Palestinians are becoming more and more cramped.
The violence directed at Palestinians by settlement radicals has increased especially during the current year, partly encouraged by the far-right ministers in Israel’s current government.
The ideology of settlement radicals includes, among other things, denying that Palestinians have the right to inhabit the territory of historical Palestine.
After the October attack by Hamas, the security situation in the West Bank has deteriorated even further. According to the UN, the number of attacks by settlers is over doubled compared to previous months.
Over the course of seven weeks, more than a thousand Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes due to settler attacks, threats and harassment. Eight Palestinians have died.
Ekhlass Saleh’s elementary school-aged children are currently attending a distance school. He says that he is afraid that there may be clashes with the settlers on the way to school.
– They are armed and they are everywhere, says Saleh.
Palestinians fear mass deportations
Over the years, the Palestinian Bedouins have been especially victimized by the settlement radicals. They are nomads, about 40,000 live in the West Bank. Bedouins often live in tent villages and herd goats, for example, over a large area.
The life of the nomads has become cramped as the settlements spread over ever wider areas. Settlers and the Israeli army have forced many to leave their homes.
This is what happened to the Bedouin To Abu Omar Qa’abneh, who was violently expelled from his home village of Wadi Al-Siq by armed settler radicals on October 12. The settlers were also accompanied by Israeli army soldiers.
– They came in dozens of cars. Some were dressed in military uniforms and covered their faces. My wife and children had to flee on foot into the terrain, says Qa’abneh.
met Qa’abneh in the village of Taybe near Ramallah, where he has set up a typical Bedouin dwelling: A few tents, a water point and space for goats, sheep, chickens and donkeys.
However, the residence of the family of eight children is temporary.
– We can’t go back to our home, but we don’t know where to go either. So far, we have been relying on the hospitality of the residents of Taybe, says Qa’abneh.
Qa’abneh says that settlement radicals have been causing problems for his community for years.
For example, they have blocked wells and fed and watered their own animals from the Bedouin’s scarce pasture and water reserves.
In addition, Qa’abneh says that settlement radicals have prevented nomads from moving from one area to another.
– Recently, they have become more aggressive. They have threatened us, and we are beginning to fear that they will kill us, says Qa’abneh.
The fear of violence has not been unfounded. On the same day that the settlers’ radicals expelled the residents of Wadi Al-Siq from their homes, they also arrested, beat and humiliated three Palestinian men who were there, along with Israeli soldiers.
According to the Palestinians, they were sexually assaulted and urinated on.
The Israeli army confirms by email to that its unit arrested three Palestinian men. According to the army, the men were arrested because they “seemed suspicious”. The army did not elaborate on the reason for the arrest.
An Israeli newspaper has previously reported on the case, for example Haaretz.
One of the abused was Qa’abneh’s brother.
– They were in the hospital for a week, Qa’abneh says.
During the incident, the men were also robbed. Money and a car were taken from them, says Qa’abneh.
Only a small proportion of settlement violence results in a conviction
Ekhlass Saleh and Abu Omar Qa’abneh characterize their situation almost identically: the Israeli legal system rarely brings justice to the Palestinians.
Saleh says that he gave a witness statement related to the shooting of his husband in the Ariel settlement. While he was at the bus stop on his way home, an Israeli army car stopped next to him.
– The soldier opened the window and spat at me, Saleh says.
The respected Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din says that between 2005 and 2022, of the criminal investigations opened into settler violence, only three percent.
The Israeli military police have opened an investigation into the shooting of Bilal Saleh and arrested the soldier suspected of shooting. The Israeli army tells via email that the suspect in the shooting has been released and that the investigation into the case is ongoing.
According to the Israeli Armed Forces, an investigation has been opened into the beating of Qa’abneh’s brother and two other Palestinian men.
– As a result of this and several other unfortunate events, the commander of the military unit that carried out the arrest has been dismissed from his position, an army spokesman tells .
Qa’abneh does not believe that he will be able to return to his home village.
“Ahead is a new Nakba, a catastrophe”
The attacks by the settlers are only part of the violence that happened in the West Bank after October 7.
The Israeli army has tightened its grip when carrying out anti-terrorist raids, especially in the northern part of the West Bank, such as in the city of Jenin.
According to the UN, more than 200 Palestinians have died in clashes with the Israeli army in the West Bank since the attack by Hamas. There are more than 50 children among them. The death toll is higher than the whole of last year, which itself was a record year for Palestinian deaths.
According to the UN, four Israelis have died in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank in the past seven weeks.
In addition, in the aftermath of the Hamas attack, Israel has arrested around 3,000 Palestinians in the West Bank. There are more than 140 children among the prisoners.
When asked what the future of the West Bank looks like, Abu Omar Qa’abneh answers with one word: Nakba. The word means disaster and refers to the year 1948, when 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee their homes when Israel gained independence.
Ekhlass Saleh, on the other hand, says he wants a normal everyday life without severe movement restrictions and fear of violence.
– I hope that shooting Bilal was the last attack. I can’t go through the same thing again. We just want to live in peace.
Ekhlass Saleh’s brother has also been interviewed for the story Hazim Shaheenwho was also present at the olive grove during the shooting incident.