Israeli settlers attack, takeover homes of West Bank Bedouins amid war

As the Hamas-Israel war rages on, occupied West Bank settlers have been attacking Palestinian Bedouins and taking over their homes, reports Al Jazeera.

Israeli peace activist Guy Hirschfeld had warned on Facebook two days prior of a rumoured call for the massacre of the Palestinian Bedouin community - Wadi al-Siq . So the village, led by their mukhtar, Abdelrahman "Abu Bashar" Kaabneh, decided to leave.

Wadi al-Siq is among the villages in the occupied West Bank that are being forcibly displaced in a tide that has grown these past two weeks, according to rights organisations.

Heavily armed Israelis from the settlements attack these communities on a daily basis – concentrated, organised attacks that go unimpeded and sometimes aided by security forces, according to witnesses and human rights organisations. 

While this has happened for years, it has increased in intensity and frequency as the world looks away, focused on the horror of the Israel-Gaza war that began on 7 October.

Armed settlers, nearly all wielding guns, stage violent incursions while Israeli law enforcement seems content to look the other way, villagers and human rights organisations said.

The Wadi al-Siq villagers are desperately calling for international assistance to at least create a two-hour humanitarian corridor so they can gather their belongings.

The pattern seen in Wadi al-Siq – closing access roads followed by concentrated attacks and forced displacement – is happening elsewhere in Area C, where the population of 300,000 is outnumbered by the 400,000 heavily armed Israeli settlers.

With checkpoints closed and roads too dangerous to pass, foreign missions and humanitarian organisations have been unable to reach the villages of Area C.