Abdullatif Abu Alia kneels over a pillow soaked with dried blood from where his cousin, 25 year old Jehad, bled to death after being shot in the head after his property was beseiged by Israeli settlers.
When word came over the weekend that Israel's closest ally, the United States, reportedly plans to hold members of an Israeli military battalion accountable for violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, rights groups saw it as progress.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said imposing sanctions on the Netzah Yehuda battalion while the war against Hamas still rages and the unit is fighting in Gaza "casts a heavy shadow" on other IDF units.the potential U.S. measure was "the peak of absurdity and a moral low," as he vowed to fight it. There have been violent rampages against Palestinian homes, businesses and property almost every day of late, in many cases with Israeli soldiers present, but not intervening to stop the rampages, say Palestinians who witnessed them.more than 486 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, many in military raids and others from attacks by settlers.
A window sits shattered in Abu Alia's home in the village of Al Mughayyir, which was attacked by Israeli settlers on April 12. Abu Alia said at one point, someone on the ground fired shots at their position on the top of the building and Jehad was hit in the head.The army was helping and they stopped all kinds of ambulances and medical people from coming to help the injured," Abu Alia said.
Although the circumstances of his death remain unexplained by Israeli authorities, Netanyahu called it a "heinous murder." "So whereas before there was a clear differentiation between security forces and settlers, you have increasing situations where settlers are wearing army uniforms."Under successive Israeli governments, the settler population has surged, growing 15 per cent in the last five years, according to one study by the pro-settler group WestBankJewishPopulationStats.com.The United Nations considers the Jewish settlements to be illegal, as do Canada and many other Western countries.
Palestinian officials say more than 34,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, with Israel's military flattening vast parts of the territory in an effort to destroy Hamas.A 17-year-old Palestinian American shot dead by Israeli men in the West Bank is one of the latest victims of increased violence in the area, something his family blames largely on the U.S. government’s support of Israel.
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