Palestine: Palestinian brothers killed after being hit by Jewish settler’s vehicle in West Bank
By Mohammed Ghifari and Zeynep Tufekci Gulay
RAMALLAH (AA): Two Palestinian brothers died Saturday in the occupied West Bank after being deliberately hit by a Jewish settler’s car.
Mohammed Mutir and Mohanad Mutair were killed when they were struck by the car at the Zatera crossing south of the West Bank city of Nablus, according to a statement from the Jerusalem Governor’s Office.
Zakaria Feyale, head of the Qalandiya Office of the Governorship of Jerusalem, said the brothers were attacked while waiting by the roadside to fix a tire of the vehicle they were riding in, according to the Palestinian official news agency. The brothers were returning home to Qalandiya from Nablus with other family members.
Mohammed died at the scene, while Muhenned was seriously hurt and died at a hospital, said Feyale, who noted that the Jewish settlers who reportedly intentionally struck the Palestinian brothers fled the scene.
Fayala said Mohammed’s body was transferred to a hospital in Nablus, while Mohanad was taken to the Hadassah Hospital before his death was announced.
A spokesman for Fatah, of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Munther al-Hayek, said in a statement that “The Israeli occupation is determined to commit crimes, and our people are determined to respond and defend themselves.”
A general strike was declared in Qalandiyah following the death of the two brothers, with residents calling to revenge their deaths.
The Jewish settler who killed and crushed the Palestinians turned himself into Israeli forces at the Zatera checkpoint, according to an announcement from the Jerusalem Governorate.
UN experts* on Thursday condemned “rampant Israeli settler violence and excessive use of force by Israeli forces” against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank this year, making 2022 the deadliest since 2005.
In a statement, the experts said 2005 was the year that UN started systematically documenting fatalities in the area of the occupied Palestinian territory.
“We remind Israel that pending the dismantlement of its unlawful occupation, Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory must be treated as protected persons, not enemies or terrorists,” the experts said.
They demanded Israel ensure the protection, security and welfare of the Palestinian people living under its occupation under international law.
“Armed and masked Israeli settlers are attacking Palestinians in their homes, attacking children on their way to school, destroying property and burning olive groves, and terrorizing entire communities with complete impunity,” said the experts.
They said that “disturbing evidence” of Israeli forces frequently facilitating, supporting, and participating in settler attacks, made it difficult to discern between Israeli settler and state violence.
“The impunity of one is reinforced by the impunity of the other,” said the experts.
They added: “Illegal settlement poses a corrosive threat to Israeli society as a whole unless Israeli forces abandon this dominant settlers mindset and rightfully treat Palestinians in the occupied territory as protected persons.”
*The experts: Francesca Albanese, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967, Morris Tiball-Binz, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and Clément Voule, Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association.
The Special Rapporteurs are part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.
[Photo: Israeli forces protect Israeli Jewish settlers celebrating Sare Day in Hebron, West Bank, Palestine on November 19, 2022. The settlers were accused of damaging Palestinians’ properties. Photographer: Mamoun Wazwaz/AA]
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