A series of violent and vandalistic incidents have occurred throughout the West Bank between Thursday, September 17th and Sunday, September 20th, leaving Palestinians and an Israeli activist injured, Palestinian property damaged, and one Israeli citizen dead.
On Thursday, settlers attacked families living on the outskirts of the village of Taybeh in the vicinity of Ramallah. Israeli rabbi and left-wing activist Arik Ascherman sustained facial injuries in the attack. Taybeh is one of about a dozen Christian-majority Palestinian villages in the West Bank, and many of its residents are American citizens.
Israeli settlers carried out further attacks on Friday and Saturday in several towns and villages in the West Bank, with some Palestinian responses alleged. In the town Akraba, south of Nablus, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported an 18-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel from settler gunfire on Friday. Earlier that day, a masked settler was documented entering the village of Khirbet-al-Markaz and attacking a Palestinian woman with a club. On land belonging to the Palestinian village of al-Mughayyir, currently occupied by the illegal Metzudat David farm outpost, Israeli settlers reported gunfire directed at them by Palestinians, also on Friday. Al-Mughayyir has been the site of intense violence in recent weeks, with several of the village’s Palestinian residents being killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) gunfire after settlers conducted violent raids against homes in the village.
This violence crescendoed on Sunday, the eve of the most holy day on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur. A group of Israelis were visiting a spring near the settlement of Neve Tzuf, about 8 miles northeast of Ramallah, when a Palestinian gunman opened fire, killing a 36-year-old man. The assailant was wounded by return fire and tracked to a nearby hospital, where he was arrested by Israeli security forces. Prime Minister Netanyahu has ordered increased IDF and Shin Bet (Israeli domestic intelligence) in the area in response to the attack. A funeral for the victim was held Monday night, but unlike some other events where Israelis were killed by Palestinians in the West Bank, violent settler reprisals (known as “price tag attacks”) have not yet materialized.
