Ramallah- Despite his severe injury, the young Jihad Hamayel insisted on the farewell of his martyr brother, “Muhammad”, who was killed in front of his eyes after an attack by the settlers andIsraeli occupation army On their village, Kafr Malik, east of a city Ramallah forWest Bank Yesterday evening.
The two brothers, Muhammad and Jihad, were among the dozens of young men and citizens from Kafr Malik who came to defend their village and address the attacks of the settlers, before large forces from the Israeli occupation army stormed the town and fired live bullets towards the people to protect the settlers, killing Muhammad and two others and hitting 6 young men, including jihad.
The young Murshid Hamil, the second target martyr, was martyred immediately after a bullet in his head, as his brother Munjid says to Al -Jazeera Net, who monitored the violations of the settlers who were escalating in the village in particular and the whole of the West Bank.
They prevented a massacre
Munjjid Hamayel says that when the settlers’ attack on his home, located at the entrance to the village from the southern side adjacent to the battlefield (road to the settlers), he was quick to secure the women and children of the family and transport them from the house to a safe place, while his brother is a guide at home, and added, “The soldiers fired randomly on everyone who was present, their concern was to secure the exit of the settlers.”
The settlers’ attacks against Kafr Malik – according to its local council, Najeh Rustam, have not stopped – since October 7, 2023, and intensified with the siege of the village 6 months ago, especially after the announcement of the truce in the Gaza Strip last January, when the occupation forces closed the village entrances and kept one branch used by more than 4 thousand Palestinians who live in the village.
He adds that the settlers gather from the settlements surrounding the village and crouching on its soil and constantly mobilizing their attacks.
“Were it not for these young men to the settlers, a massacre would have occurred in the village, and they completed the burning of the houses after the vehicles …” says Nabil Ghurra, one of the residents of Kafr Malik, to Al -Jazeera Net.
Stir the committees
For his part, the Director General of Publishing and Documentation in the Wall Resistance Authority, Amir Dawood, says that those who practice these attacks are settlers in the population of the outposts (sites seized by the settlers randomly) that were built recently around the settlement of “Koukhf Hashhar”, specifically the foci established on the lands of the Palestinians between the villages of Kafr Malik, Deir Jarir and Silwad, east of Ramallah and Al -Bireh Governorate.
He added, “Since the beginning of this year, settlers launched 1,400 attacks on citizens in the West Bank, during which 4 Palestinians were killed and dozens were wounded, in addition to destroying property and homes in these areas.”
In light of these attacks, the Palestinians find themselves in a direct confrontation with the settlers whose hands were launched with weapons and equipment since the beginning of the war on Gaza Strip in October 7October 2023.
The increasing attacks of the settlers, specifically from the population of the pastoral outposts that were established after the war and the number of more than 170 focuses, and the losses of life and property that followed an important question about protection, and what is the isolated Palestinians to protect themselves from the settlers attacks that they usually carry out with the protection of the Israeli occupation army? Who is responsible for protecting them?, What is the fate of the popular committees that have been announced more than once?
The coordinator of the national and Islamic forces in Ramallah Governorate, Issam Bakr, responds, saying that there are more than 100 popular committees formed in various regions, but they are not fully activated, and in need to enhance their presence through procedures in which the government bears andPower The two Palestinians are fully responsible in cooperation with national and civil institutions.
He added to Al -Jazeera Net, “During the Israel WarIran He agreed to form more of these committees, and to be in all Palestinian gatherings, by submitting proposals and demands, and that municipal councils with the support of the Ministry of Local Government to provide these local committees with all the capabilities.
According to Bakr, what is happening now requires the declaration of public alienation in all villages and towns exposed to settlers’ attacks, and joining all official and popular efforts.
He continued, “We see that the settlers are behind them a state that provides them with all the ingredients, so why is not a large part of the authority’s resources to intensify the resilience of people on their land,” noting that what happened in Kafr Malik is a “miniature rehearsal” for a future stage that establishes the expansion of the attacks, stressing that they have the right to support their people to use all available forms according to international law to address these attacks.
The role of power
The activist in resisting settlement, Jamal Gomaa, agrees with what Bakr went to that the settlers’ attack on the village of Kafr Malik establishes the stage of violent attacks than the settlers, and that the response to it must be at the level of its danger.
This danger – Jumaa says to Al -Jazeera Net – needs a new strategy in confronting as well, by organizing citizens and enabling them to defend themselves, holding responsibility for this for national forces, parties and institutions, but to the greatest degree of the Palestinian Authority that has stipulated itself a protector of the Palestinian people.
He adds, “The popular committees in their old form are no longer a viable means, and we need to reshape it in a way that ensures that the settlers and the occupation army are not pursued.”
Jumaa asked, “Why does the Palestinian Authority not distribute the security forces to the Palestinian gatherings that are most vulnerable to settlement in their civilian clothes to form the guard committees and support the people of the villages to repel these attacks?”
However, Jumaa continues, that the greatest movement must be political, by taking a political position by cutting all coordination with the occupation on the one hand, and on the other hand, demanding Arab and international countries to work to pressure Israel to stop these attacks, in addition to working with international groups and institutions to try Israel and pursue it to carry out war crimes, and to demand the world to boycott Israel and impose sanctions on it.
He concluded by saying: “There are many possibilities to confront these attacks, but there is no clear political will to go into any of them by the Palestinian Authority.”