Last night (Tuesday), 24 February, at around 8:00 P.M about 20 Israeli settlers raided the village of Khirbet Susiya in Masafer Yatta, in the South Hebron Hills, armed with clubs and flammable materials. They attacked homes and cars with stones, and set fire to three tents, a pre-fab, chicken coops and cars at several spots throughout the village.
About 300 people live in the village, half of them minors. They are subjected to daily violence by settlers and the military, with the backing of all Israeli state authorities.
Footage also shows a group of settlers trying to damage cameras to prevent documentation of the attack. None of the assailants were detained.
Yesterday’s attack on Khirbet Susiya is part of Israel’s broader onslaught against Palestinians, who remain defenseless in the face of unchecked violence by militias and the Israeli military. These attacks are some of the actions taken to expel dozens of Palestinian communities from their homes throughout the West Bank in recent years. The daily violence is part of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank, which continues while the international community stands by.
Israel’s ethnic cleansing in the West Bank has so far displaced more than 4,000 Palestinians from their homes, with 51 communities expelled in their entirety and 14 communities in part.
Attorney Qamar Mishraqi of Haqel – In Defense of Human Rights, who is representing the residents, added: “Village residents are currently petitioning the court over the lack of law enforcement and the violence directed against them. As part of the proceedings, the state has repeatedly declared and committed to enforcing the law in the village. In practice, the violence has become far more extreme over the past year, including pogroms and severe assaults on residents inside their homes. With not even a single indictment filed against repeat assailants, yesterday’s incident is yet another escalation in the organized campaign to drive the community off its land.”
