Days of Palestine

Settlers Storm Qaryut Spring South of Nablus

H.JA| DOP -

Today, Thursday, dozens of settlers stormed the Ein El-Mayah spring in the town of Qaryut, south of Nablus.

Ghassan Daghlas, the official in charge of the settlement file in the northern West Bank, said that dozens of settlers,  protected by the Israeli occupation army, stormed the Qaryut water spring, which is about 150 meters away from the oldest house in the town.

He added that settlers are deployed in large numbers in the vicinity of towns, especially near settlements, in an attempt to impose a fait accompli in the area.

this follows Sunday’s news where an Israeli settler ran over two Palestinian sisters to be only released less than 24 hours later in Tel Aviv.

Violence by settlers (and sometimes by other Israeli civilians) toward Palestinians has long since become part of daily life under occupation in the West Bank. These actions range from blocking roads, throwing stones at cars and houses, raiding villages and farmland, torching fields and olive groves, and damaging crops and property to physical assault, sometimes to the point of hurling Molotov cocktails or using live fire. Over the years, this widespread violence toward Palestinians has resulted in injuries to life and limb, as well as damage to property and land.

These Israeli-settlers-initiated attacks are responded with little to no scrutiny by the occupation government which rather encourages such actions through turning a blind eye or simply not following through in legal procedures.

Al-Haq, Human rights organization submitted an Urgent Appeal on Intensified Violence and Attacks against Palestinians by Colonial Settlers

They concluded the petition with a number of requests including:

  1. Demand Israel, the Occupying Power, to immediately halt the planning, construction and
    expansion of its unlawful settlement enterprise and progressively undertake measures to
    dismantle all existing settlements and their infrastructure and withdraw colonial settlers
    from the oPt;
  2. Call on Israel to guarantee the protection of the Palestinian civilian population in the oPt
    by taking all necessary measures to ensure effective law enforcement against colonial
    settler perpetrators and investigation into incidents of colonial settler violence;
  3.  Call on Israel to afford all victims of colonial settler violence access to justice and effective
    remedies, including by ensuring the investigation of incidents, the prosecution of potential
    perpetrators, and reparations for its wrongful inaction;
  4. Call on Israel to cease all policies and practices that form part of its apartheid regime
    against the Palestinian people, particularly with regards to law enforcement and access to
    justice;
  5.  Call on the Third States to take immediate actions and measures against Israel’s settlement
    enterprise, including by instituting a ban on settlement imports, supporting and endorsing
    available mechanisms to counter the expansion of Israel’s unlawful settlement enterprise,
    including the UN Database of all business enterprises involved in or with settlements, and
    undertaking necessary measures that guarantee Israel’s genuine law enforcement and
    investigation into incidents of colonial settler violence;
  6. Call on the International Criminal Court and the prosecutor to push forward with their
    investigation into the Situation in Palestine, so that justice and accountability can be given
    for the victims of Israel’s war crimes and crimes against humanity

B’tselem documented that 655 settlers held attacks since 2020. 156  this year as of May of 2022

Total incidents documented by B’Tselem by May 2022
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