Five Palestinians were injured, Thursday, in an attack carried out by Israeli settlers on the town of Atara near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to a human rights organization, after the Israeli army dismantled two illegal settlement outposts.
The Israeli army, which is under international criticism for settler violence, said it intervened and dismantled two settlement outposts set up by settlers without a permit in the West Bank.
The Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din said in a statement: “After the Israeli army forces left the area, dozens of settlers, armed with sticks, tear gas, and stones, stormed the town of Atara.”
She added: “Five residents were injured and taken to hospital, one of them in serious condition as a result of a cerebral hemorrhage,” according to Agence France-Presse.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported that its crews transported a 67-year-old man to the hospital after settlers beat him.
The army said it removed tents, vehicles, and “temporary facilities” set up by settlers in two outposts, one of which was near the town of Atara. He added: “During law enforcement activity near Atara, Israeli rioters barricaded themselves inside facilities” and were dispersed.
In turn, local journalist and one of the town's residents, Abdel Hadi Attari, told Agence France-Presse that the settlers stormed Palestinian homes and vandalized them shortly after the army arrived.
He explained that the army closed the entrances to the town before dismantling the outpost, which “helped the settlers carry out the attack and move freely during the attack inside the village.”
He added: “The children were terrified. Settlers uprooted the doors of houses. Some homes had their doors completely removed, and all their windows smashed.”
With the exception of East Jerusalem, about three million Palestinians live in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967, in addition to more than 500,000 Israelis residing in settlements considered illegal under international law, or in unauthorized settlement outposts established without the approval of the Israeli authorities, often in the form of tents or mobile homes.
Settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has been on the rise for months, after its perpetrators remained largely immune from legal prosecution by the Israeli authorities for years.
In September, a number of countries, including Britain and France, announced the imposition of trade sanctions on settlement products due to the violence.
Last week, France prevented Yossi Dagan, head of the Regional Council of Settlements in the northern West Bank, from entering its territory, according to his office.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that four hotspots were removed within two days, stressing that “the law applies to everyone.”
In a separate incident, Thursday, settlers set fire to a vehicle and wrote slogans in Hebrew on the walls of a house in the predominantly Christian town of Taybeh, east of Ramallah, according to the Observatory of Christian Presence in the Holy Land.
The observatory, which documents the attacks on the town, said: “This attack is not just an act of sabotage targeting private property, but rather an attack on human dignity, the sanctity of homes, the security of families, and their basic right to live in peace and security on their land.”
Violence escalated in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, coinciding with the war in the Gaza Strip that broke out on October 7, 2023, following the unprecedented attack launched by the Hamas movement on southern Israel.
At least 1,116 Palestinians, including a number of militants, have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers since the outbreak of the Gaza war, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on data from the Palestinian Authority.
On the other hand, official Israeli data show that at least 51 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, were killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians or during confrontations with Israeli forces.
The Lebanese investigation into the murder of former Iraqi MP Ahmed Al-Alwani inside a residential apartment in Beirut has made tangible progress, represented by identifying two Syrian people suspected of carrying out the crime. The discriminatory public prosecutor, Judge Ahmed Rami Al-Hajj, asked the Syrian authorities to arrest them and hand them over to the Lebanese judiciary, after data showed that they left Lebanon for Syria a few hours after the crime was carried out. However, this progress has not yet revealed the motives for the killing.
The National Security Office in the Information Division of the Internal Security Forces continues its preliminary investigation into the crime. A judicial source revealed to Asharq Al-Awsat that the security services “were able to determine the full identity of the two Syrian people who appeared in surveillance camera recordings at the entrance to the building and the entrance to the apartment in which Al-Alwani was killed,” noting that the Lebanese authorities “asked their Syrian counterparts to arrest them and hand them over to the Lebanese judiciary.” He explained that the causes of the crime “have not yet been known or determined, but the arrest and investigation of the two suspects constitutes an essential step to uncover its circumstances and determine its background, as the motives for the murder remain unresolved.”
The Lebanese person detained pending investigation is still being interrogated, but the judicial source pointed out that “the responsibility of this detainee is limited, and he was not aware of the plan prepared for the crime and was not aware of its implementation. He is the driver of the car who transported Alwani from the airport to the apartment with the two Syrian people, and he also brought them items and food before the crime occurred.” He pointed out that the data available so far “does not show his involvement in the murder or in luring the victim, thus specifying the nature of the role that the investigation revealed about him.”
Prior knowledge of Syrians
The data available so far indicate that the victim had prior knowledge of the two Syrian suspects. The judicial source stated, “When Al-Alwani called his family around ten o’clock on Thursday night, that is, shortly before his death, the two Syrians were with him in the apartment.” He said: “The data indicate a close acquaintance between Al-Alwani and them, as the recordings showed that he shook hands with them and hugged them warmly, which constitutes one of the elements that the investigation addresses to understand the nature of the relationship between them and the circumstances that preceded the crime.”
Delivery of the body
In terms of medical evidence, the judicial source confirmed that the investigation “has not yet decided whether the death resulted from hanging or suffocation by a tape attached to the curtain of the house, or by another method.” He explained that “the condition of the body when it was found, and the deformation and swelling that occurred, did not allow the cause of death to be determined conclusively, which requires completing the necessary medical examinations.”
After DNA tests determined that the body belonged to the murdered Alwani, the source pointed out that the body of the murdered would be subjected to x-rays, and its examination or autopsy would be completed as required by the medical need to determine the exact cause of death. Accordingly, its delivery will be delayed until the completion of these procedures, while revealing the motive behind the crime remains linked to what the investigations will reach, especially in the event of the arrest of the two Syrian suspects.
