Middle East Monitor / April 11, 2023
Jewish settlers blocked the main entrance to the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh at the Beit El military checkpoint in the central West Bank on Monday evening, eyewitnesses have reported. The settlers threw rocks at passing Palestinian vehicles, resulting in a number being damaged.
Fighting erupted between Palestinians and settlers at the checkpoint. Israeli soldiers fired at the Palestinians, and used tear gas to protect the settlers. In the same context, Anadolu news agency reported that settlers also gathered at the crossroads of several roads west of Ramallah and near the city of Nablus.
Tension has been escalating across the occupied West Bank for months, amid Israeli army raids on Palestinian towns. Earlier on Monday, Muhammad Fayez Nabhan, 15, was shot and killed by soldiers in Aqabat Jaber camp, near Jericho.
According to a spokesman for the Palestinian presidency, Israel seeks to drag the region into “violence and unrest.” Nabil Abu Rudeineh called for “immediate US intervention to stop its repeated aggression.” He added that the Palestinian Authority holds Israel responsible for the “serious attacks and escalating provocation, which confirm Israel’s endeavour to drag the region into violence and unrest.”
The spokesman pointed that, “The invasion of settler militias, led by ministers from the Israeli occupation government, into the lands of the State of Palestine, does not change the fact that it is Palestinian land and will remain so, and that this invasion, which comes by force of arms, does not create a right of ownership.” This “fascist invasion by Jewish extremists” coupled with the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque, said Abu Rudeineh, “is pushing the area towards an explosion, which no one will be able to control.”
The Palestinian official suggested that US silence encourages Israel to persist in its crimes against the Palestinian people. He called for “immediate and swift intervention to stop this madness, for which the whole region will pay the price.”
According to the Palestinian Settlement Resistance Commission, thousands of settlers participated in a “Judaisation march” in an attempt to pressure the occupation government to allow construction and residence in the abandoned Eviatar settlement.”
In the city of Hebron/Al-Khalil, meanwhile, the Israeli army has closed the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim worshippers for the second consecutive day and opened it to Jewish settlers. The director of the mosque, Ghassan al-Rajabi, told Anadolu that the occupation army closed the mosque for the duration of the Jewish Passover holiday.
Eyewitnesses told Anadolu that the Israeli army closed the vital Bab al-Zawiya area in the centre of Hebron, prevented shop owners from opening their businesses, and deployed snipers on surrounding roofs. They added that the closure coincided with settlers storming a Palestinian archaeological site on Beersheba Street in the city to perform religious rituals.
