Palestinians unite in condemnation of Qalqilya settler attack
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The Palestinian Foreign Ministry describes the settlers' rampage as a serious escalation in ongoing crimes against Palestinians.
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A Palestinian family stands inside their damaged home, a day after an attack by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit near Nablus in the West Bank killing a 23-year-old man and injuring others with critical gunshot wounds, on August 16, 2024. (AFP)
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the Israeli settlers' attack on the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya in the West Bank, on Friday, calling it "organized state terrorism".
In a statement, the ministry described the settlers' rampage as a serious escalation in ongoing crimes against Palestinians. It demanded "deterrent sanctions against the racist colonial system, the dismantling of terrorist settler gangs, and the prosecution of their members."
The ministry questioned, "How can these terrorist gangs mobilize 100 armed members with weapons provided by Ben-Gvir and attack a Palestinian village if they do not feel politically, legally, and security-wise protected and supported?"
"استشهاد الشاب رشيد عبد القادر (23 عامًا) برصاص المستوطنين في بلدة جيت شرق قلقيلية بعد اقتحام المستوطنين للبلدة" 👇 #فلسطين #الميادين pic.twitter.com/1WRoM3YqCE
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) August 15, 2024
On its part, Hamas condemned the settler's attack, which included arson, vandalism, and property destruction, calling on the Palestinian people in the West Bank to confront the settlers' gangs.
“We mourn the heroic martyr Rashid Mahmoud Sada, who was killed by settler militias in the village of Jit, and we affirm that this pure blood will not go in vain and will be a curse upon the occupation,” it added.
Settlers' attack recalls 1948 massacres
In the same context, the Islamic Jihad Movement viewed the attack as a declaration of war against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank.
The movement's statement noted that the attack recalls the massacres carried out by the Stern Gang, Irgun, and Haganah in 1948, aimed at forcibly displacing the Palestinian people from their land. It asserted that "IOF's involvement in protecting these crimes proves that the ongoing actions are part of a governmental plan under war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu."
The Palestinian al-Mujahideen Movement mourned the martyr from Qalqilya, viewing the "terrorist attack" as an extension of the genocide being led by the "fascist Israeli government against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank."
The movement considered the attack as a "dangerous development in the Zionist aggression against our people that must be met with a qualitative escalation in Resistance and confrontation."
It called on the Palestinian people in the cities and villages of the West Bank to "mobilize widely and launch a comprehensive uprising to strongly confront the crimes of the Zionists and thwart their criminal plans aimed at eradicating the Palestinian presence and displacing our people."
Additionally, the Palestinian Resistance Committees mourned martyr Rashid Mahmoud Sada, affirming that "this crime is part of the systematic war waged by the Zionist entity to uproot our people and expel them from their land."
Israeli settlers raid West Bank town, commit arson, random killings
A Palestinian youth was killed, and another critically injured on Thursday evening during an attack by Israeli settlers on the village of Jit, east of Qalqilya in the West Bank.
The settlers also set fire to several Palestinian homes and vehicles in Jit. According to local sources, the Israeli occupation forces blocked Palestinian Civil Defense teams from reaching the burning homes and vehicles to extinguish the flames.
"مستوطنون يهاجمون قرية جيت قرب #قلقيلية ويقومون بحرق سيارات المواطنين الفلسطينيين " #الميادين #فلسطين pic.twitter.com/7sqdn2Gb6g
— قناة الميادين (@AlMayadeenNews) August 15, 2024
These latest incidents are part of a broader escalation of violence in the West Bank, which has seen an increase in confrontations since the start of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Towns and cities across the West Bank have been subjected to daily incursions by settlers and occupation forces, often resulting in widespread arrests, as well as deaths and injuries.
At least 606 Palestinians have been killed and about 5,400 others wounded at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces and Israeli settlers in various cities and camps of the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza on October 7.
Read more: UN Human Rights chief: Israeli settlements, violence reach record high
