Middle East Monitor / August 31, 2022
Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian family homes with gunfire after raiding the village of Kisan, east of the southern occupied West Bank city of Bethlehem, reported Wafa news agency.
Nabil Abiyat, a member of Kisan village council, said a group of settlers stormed the village and fired live bullets under the protection of Israeli occupation forces.
He added that the Israeli forces joined the attack, firing tear gas canisters and stun grenades towards Palestinian residents and their homes. A number of Palestinian residents suffered suffocation.
Occupation forces then closed the town as settlers resumed their attack and attempted to reach residents’ houses. A Palestinian resident was transferred to hospital after being hit by stones being hurled by the illegal settlers.
Settler attacks on Palestinian properties have increased in recent years, with occupation forces protecting the attackers and arresting Palestinians who try protect their land.
Kisan, a village cut off from other neighbouring Palestinian villages, is inhabited by 800 people and is surrounded by the two illegal Israeli settlements of Ma’ale Amos and Avi Menahem.
Its area is about 133,278 dunams (133 square kilometres). Jewish settlers expropriated 2,201 dunams (2.2 square kilometres) of its land.
This is not the first time village land and residents have come under attack from Israeli settlers and soldiers, Abiyat said..
The small Palestinian village of Kisan has faced intensified Israeli land theft and settler attacks in recent months.
The village does not have transportation, electricity or water networks. It does not have a medical clinic, either.
Like hundreds of other Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, Kisan is located in ‘Area C’ under the Oslo Accords, putting it under full Israeli military and administrative control.
