Latest news with #KafrMalik
Al Arabiya
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Saudi Arabia condemns Israeli violence against Palestinian civilians in West Bank, Gaza
Saudi Arabia issued a statement Friday condemning violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers and soldiers against the Palestinian civilian population in Gaza and the West Bank. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Kingdom's 'condemnation and denunciation of the continued violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, against Palestinian civilians, including the attacks in the village of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah.' Saudi Arabia also reiterated its 'condemnation of the continued Israeli violence against unarmed civilians in Gaza, including the targeting of civilian sites housing displaced persons,' the statement added. It called on the international community to help end 'Israeli violations of international laws and norms.' At least four people were killed in two separate incidents in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry, including a 15-year-old boy who it said was shot by Israeli troops. The teenager was reportedly killed in the northern West Bank town of al-Yamoun, while three other people died in a separate clash in the southern village of Kafr Malik.
Asharq Al-Awsat
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
GCC Denounces Attacks by Israeli Settlers on Defenseless Palestinians
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi has expressed his strongest condemnation and denunciation of ongoing attacks launched by Israeli settlers, under the cover of Israeli occupation forces, against the defenseless Palestinian people, the latest of which were the heinous attacks that affected the village of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah. The secretary-general stressed on Friday that these repeated violations represent a dangerous escalation and a flagrant breach of international and humanitarian laws and are part of a systematic policy aimed at undermining the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and imposing a de facto reality by force. Albudaiwi renewed his call to the international community, particularly the UN Security Council, to assume its legal and humanitarian responsibilities, to act urgently to put an end to these violations, to provide the necessary international protection for the Palestinian people, and to support all efforts aimed at achieving a just and comprehensive peace, in line with resolutions of international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative.
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Saudi Arabia Condemns Ongoing Israeli Violence Against Palestinians
The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed the Kingdom's condemnation of the continued violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the occupation forces, against Palestinian civilians, including the attacks in the village of Kafr Malik, east of Ramallah. The Kingdom reiterated its condemnation of the continued Israeli violence against unarmed civilians in Gaza, including the targeting of civilian sites housing displaced persons. The ministry stressed in a statement the need to exert all efforts to provide protection for Palestinian civilians and enable the Palestinian people to exercise all their legitimate rights. It renewed its call for the international community to assume its responsibilities to put an end to Israeli violations.
Irish Times
2 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Three Palestinians killed by Israeli army during raid by settlers
Palestinian vice-president Hussein Al-Sheikh has condemned the killing of three Palestinians by the Israeli army during a raid by Israeli settlers on the West Bank village of Kafr Malik on Wednesday. Mr Al-Sheik posted on X: 'The Israeli government's behaviour and decisions are pushing the region toward an explosion. We call on the international community to urgently protect our Palestinian people.' More than 100 settlers torched homes and cars and threw stones at residents of the town northeast of Ramallah. As residents of neighbouring villages attempted to intervene, Israeli troops opened fire. The Palestinian Red Crescent said five Palestinians had also suffered gunshot wounds, with some in serious condition. Five Israeli settlers were detained and held in police custody for taking part in the attack. READ MORE The foreign ministry of Jordan, which ruled the West Bank from 1948-67, condemned the attack on Kafr Malik and argued that impunity incites settlers to carry out such assaults, according to Jordan's Petra news agency. An Israeli military statement said dozens of Israelis set fire to property, and military and police forces were dispatched to the scene after receiving a report of ensuing violence that included an exchange of stone-throwing. The military statement said several Palestinians opened fire and hurled rocks at the forces, who returned the fire. Five Israeli suspects were arrested. An Israeli army officer was lightly wounded. A village of Crusader and Ottoman lineage, Kafr Malek is reported to have a population of about 2,900, according to the Palestinian bureau of statistics. Since the 1967 Israeli occupation , Kafr Malek's land has been confiscated for Israeli settlements and the village has been frequently targeted by settlers. Earlier on Wednesday, masked settlers set a car on fire near Ramallah and threw stones at Palestinians at Asira Al-Qibliya village southwest of Nablus in the northern West Bank. On Thursday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that settlers gathered near the village of Al-Minya, near Bethlehem, and stoned passing vehicles without inflicting injuries or damage. Yesh Din, an Israeli human rights organisation that works in Israel and the West Bank, states on its website: 'Incidents of violence by Israeli civilians against Palestinians and their property are a daily occurrence throughout the West Bank.' Yesh Din says that while the Israeli public thinks this is perpetrated by a 'handful' of ideologically motivated extremists, 'In reality, this is a widespread practice involving many Israeli citizens and includes acts of violence, damage to property, takeover of Palestinian land, and other offenses.' It argues that the attacks are 'part of a calculated strategy for dispossessing Palestinians of their land'. Last week, Britain joined Australia, Norway, Canada and New Zealand by sanctioning Israeli settler leaders Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for their 'repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank. Israeli authorities called this move 'outrageous.' Mr Ben-Gvir is police minister and Mr Smotrich holds the finance portfolio.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
‘They attack us without provocation': West Bank town mourns its dead after settler raid
The men from Fatah arrived on Thursday morning, hours after the attack on Kafr Malik, to put out more flags along the main streets, adding bright primary colours to a mournful scene, but they did nothing to relieve the all-encompassing sense of helplessness. Three men from this central West Bank town, one a teenager, lay dead and several others were still in hospital after an attack by about 100 Israeli settlers on Wednesday evening. The men of Kafr Malik had run to its south-western edge to form a screen against the settlers and rescue women and children trapped in a house set alight by the masked attackers. But as they threw stones at the settlers in an attempt to drive them back, the Israel army, who had taken up position behind the marauders, opened fire at the Palestinians. 'Their own kids are really valuable to them but other people's kids are worthless,' said Mohammed Sabry, his eyes swollen from a night of weeping. His 18-year-old son, Lutfi, was one of the dead. 'There is no justification whatsoever to shed the blood of the Palestinian people like this,' Sabry said. 'They attack us without provocation, and when the young people go to defend women and children, they are shot by the army. The bitter truth is that the world is watching the bloodshed of the Palestinian people without doing anything about it.' Afi Hamayel has the misfortune to own a house on the south-east edge of town and it took the brunt of the settler attack. 'They threw petrol bombs into my car and then through the window into the house,' Hayamel said as friends helped him remove charred personal effects from the house. Hamayel's extended family, including his own six children – 20 people altogether – had taken shelter in the house as the attack began. When it began to burn, a neighbour ran down the hillside to help them escape. 'He was helping me evacuate the children. He took them to his house and he was coming back when the army shot him in the head,' he said. The neighbour, Mershid Hamayel, 35, was listed as one the three killed on Wednesday. The settlers sprayed a black message on the wall around Afi Hamayel's house, declaring the attack to be revenge for the killing two years ago of two settlers in Eli, a settlement about 9 miles (15km) to the north. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) claimed they came under fire from the direction of Kafr Malik on Wednesday night. But that was adamantly denied by residents, the IDF produced no evidence, and there were no reports of any injuries among the settler assailants. Five settlers who took part in the attack were detained. According to press reports and human rights activists, they were released without charge early on Thursday morning. In Kafr Malik, a billowing brown and black tent was erected alongside the central mosque for the wake, with long lines of green plastic chairs lined up for the mourners, who arrived on foot from all corners of the town. Palestinian flags hung along the surrounding streets alongside the yellow banner of Fatah, the main faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It was an exercise in branding, showing Kafr Malik's continuing loyalty, despite the attacks, to the Palestinian Authority (PA), in which Fatah is the dominant force. It signalled that this town, at least, had not gone over to Hamas. The Fatah banner is emblazoned with motifs of its past resistance, crossed assault rifles over a grenade, but the defiant symbolism was drained of meaning long ago. Kafr Malik is about 8 miles north-east of Ramallah, the seat of the PA, but it lies in Area B, which means the PA is supposed to provide civil governance while the IDF is responsible for security. Palestinian police have no jurisdiction there. Even in Area A, where they are in charge, they do nothing to protect Palestinians from outside attack. More and more over recent years, it has become open season on Palestinians in the West Bank, who have been killed with impunity. Through the Gaza war, the Lebanon war and now the Iran war, the death toll among Palestinians on the West Bank keeps grinding upwards, in a concerted campaign to drive them off their land. Since the start of the Gaza conflict, the UN says, 943 Palestinians have been killed by settlers or security forces, more than 140 of them this year. It was the second time the mourning tent had been put up in Kafr Malik this week. On Monday a 13-year-old boy, Ammar Hamayel, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers while out with his brother in the olive groves on the south side of town. He was the 29th child shot dead by Israeli forces in the West Bank this year, according to the Palestinian health ministry. After the killing, the IDF put out a statement saying the boys had been throwing stones in the direction of a patrol, referring to them as 'terrorists' and presenting it as a justification for shooting them dead using assault rifles. Afi Hamayel is a relative of the dead boy, part of the same large clan. He said the brothers had been out trapping birds with nets set up between trees. Hamayel is a father of four girls and two boys, and these days he does not let them go beyond the garden fence. The view from the family house looks over the Jordan valley to the distant high plateau of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan on the east bank. The rocky hillside below their home is covered with olive groves that Hayamel and other townspeople no longer dare to tend, for fear of being picked off by the settlers or an army sniper. The tall antennas of an IDF base can be seen on the neighbouring hill overlooking the town, and a new settler outpost has sprung up alongside the base in the past two weeks, local residents said. An outpost is a settlement established without official authorisation, though under the current, settler-dominated Israeli coalition, outposts generally receive retrospective endorsement. The settlers receive army protection from the moment they arrive. The world around Kafr Malik keeps shrinking. Last year, shepherds from the town were ambushed by settlers and their flocks were stolen. Now their olives are out of reach too. It is a commonplace tale across the West Bank. 'This is what ethnic cleansing looks like,' Yesh Din, a human rights group, said in a statement after Wednesday night's attack. 'Under the protection of government and military backing, settler violence in the West Bank continues and is becoming deadlier by the day.'
