Middle East Monitor / July 13, 2023
The Palestinian Bedouin community of Humsa al-Bqai’a have been forced to relocate after Jewish settlers set fire to a tent on Monday with two people still inside, WAFA has reported.
The community of 36 Palestinians, including 20 children, is based in the north of the occupied Jordan Valley. They have attempted to resist the settlers ever since the Israeli Jews stormed into the village and built an illegal Jewish settlement outpost last month.
Moreover, the settlers have been escalating their attacks against the local Palestinians. According to UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Palestine Lynn Hastings, the settlers have been intimidating the community from accessing their land and moving freely.
Attacks by illegal settlers against the Palestinians in the occupied territories may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity as part of Israel’s “ethnic cleansing” of Palestine. Indeed, the very presence of settlers and the settlements in which they live is regarded as a war crime under international law.
Hastings added that the relocation of the community of Humsa al-Bqai’a’s is not an isolated case. It came after 132 Palestinians left the Ein Samiya community in May after Israeli settlers attacked families and school-age children.
Settlers protected by the Israeli occupation security forces often prevent Palestinian farmers’ livestock from grazing in the open pastures in the northern Jordan Valley. This is a very fertile strip of land running along the west bank of the River Jordan. It is home to about 65,000 Palestinians and makes up approximately 30 per cent of the total area of the occupied West Bank.
It is estimated that around 700,000 illegal Jewish settlers now live in 164 Jewish settlements and 116 outposts in the West Bank. Under international law, all Jewish settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal.
