Widady, South Hebron Hills: Armed Israeli settlers enter Palestinian community with dog and attack residents

On Saturday, 24 December 2022, while Saleh Abu ‘Awwad (27) was grazing his flock about 100 meters away from his home in the community of Widady, two Israeli settlers who are familiar to the residents arrived with a dog. They went into a shack Abu ‘Awwad and his brother Radwan (29) use as a livestock enclosure and walked around in it, while Radwan shouted at them. The settlers then came out of the shack and walked toward the brothers’ home. One went inside, and when he came out, the brothers and the settlers entered a confrontation, during which one of the settlers hit Saleh on the shoulder with his rifle and the other snatched the cellphone Radwan was using to film the incident. The two settlers then ran towards the settlement. The brothers called the police. Officers arrived in the area about half an hour later but refused to go to the community itself. They took a statement from Radwan, who went to meet them, and suggested he file a complaint at the Kiryat Arba police station.

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Israel’s regime of apartheid and occupation is inextricably bound up in human rights violations. B’Tselem strives to end this regime, as that is the only way forward to a future in which human rights, democracy, liberty and equality are ensured to all people, both Palestinian and Israeli, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Since the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023, Israel has acted in a coordinated and deliberate manner to destroy Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip, committing genocide against its residents. In light of Israel’s actions in Gaza, the public statements made by Israeli decision-makers, and the international community’s failure to take effective action, there is a serious risk that the Israeli regime will expand the genocide to other areas under its control—first and foremost, the West Bank.
B’Tselem calls on the Israeli public and the international community to use every tool available under international law to bring an immediate end to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people.