2018-I

Netanel Kahalani

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March 16, 2018: Netanel Kahalani, 20, was killed when an automobile collided with him and another soldier who were standing at a military roadblock in Barta’a village in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

In addition to Sergeant Kahalani, Lieutenant Ziv Daus, 21 was also killed in the collision.

Israeli Ynet News said Daus was a company commander of army’s “search and rescue” brigade, while Kahalani was a driver in the Menashe Brigade.

The soldiers were killed near Barta’a military roadblock, close to Jenin in northern West Bank, when a Palestinian driver, identified as Ala’ Rateb Qabha, 26, crashed into the roadblock.

Ala’ suffered light-to-moderate wounds, in addition to wounding two other soldiers.

The Israeli army claimed that the fatal incident was a deliberate attack targeting the soldiers at the military roadblock, and raided the family home of the Palestinian driver, before violently searching the property and interrogating the family.

But the family of Ala’ denied that claim, saying that the young man was not politically involved in any way, and the collision was a car accident, not an attack.

The day after the fatal vehicular collision, the army announced it plans to recommend that the Israeli government split the village of Barta’a in two, and determined a series of collective punishment measures, including constant invasions, and isolating the village.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and several members of his cabinet, vowed to demolish the home of the Palestinian driver, while the Israeli Internal Security claimed that “all indications, and the interrogation of the driver, points towards a nationally motivated attack,” a term used to refer to incidents directly related to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

Israel’s illegal policies of collective punishment, including demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israelis, or wounding them, and even those accused of carrying out attacks, such as shootings and hurling Molotov cocktails at the military or colonialist settlers, has been widely implemented since Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has reported that Israeli demolished 351 homes and structures, and displaced 528 Palestinians in the year 2017, and added that the number of demolished structures in the occupied West Bank since 1967 is 78,743.

Netanel was from Elyakim Moshav, in the Megiddo Regional Council, in the northern part of Israel. Source: IMEMC

Ziv Daus

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ZivMarch 16, 2018: Ziv Daus, 21, was killed when an automobile collided with him and another soldier who were standing at a military roadblock in Barta’a village in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

In addition to Lieutenant Daus, Sergeant Netanel Kahalani, 20, was also killed in the collision.

Israeli Ynet News said Daus was a company commander of army’s “search and rescue” brigade, while Kahalani was a driver in the Menashe Brigade.

The soldiers were killed near Barta’a military roadblock, close to Jenin in northern West Bank, when a Palestinian driver, identified as Ala’ Rateb Qabha, 26, crashed into the roadblock.

Ala’ suffered light-to-moderate wounds, in addition to wounding two other soldiers.

The Israeli army claimed that the fatal incident was a deliberate attack targeting the soldiers at the military roadblock, and raided the family home of the Palestinian driver, before violently searching the property and interrogating the family.

But the family of Ala’ denied that claim, saying that the young man was not politically involved in any way, and the collision was a car accident, not an attack.

The day after the fatal vehicular collision, the army announced it plans to recommend that the Israeli government split the village of Barta’a in two, and determined a series of collective punishment measures, including constant invasions, and isolating the village.

Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and several members of his cabinet, vowed to demolish the home of the Palestinian driver, while the Israeli Internal Security claimed that “all indications, and the interrogation of the driver, points towards a nationally motivated attack,” a term used to refer to incidents directly related to the ongoing Israeli military occupation of Palestine.

Israel’s illegal policies of collective punishment, including demolishing the homes of Palestinians accused of killing Israelis, or wounding them, and even those accused of carrying out attacks, such as shootings and hurling Molotov cocktails at the military or colonialist settlers, has been widely implemented since Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 1967.

The Israeli Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD) has reported that Israeli demolished 351 homes and structures, and displaced 528 Palestinians in the year 2017, and added that the number of demolished structures in the occupied West Bank since 1967 is 78,743.

Ziv was from Azur town near Tel Aviv. Source: IMEMC

Itamar Ben Gal

Mark

February 05, 2018: Itamar Ben Gal, 29, was killed in a stabbing attack outside an entrance to ‘Ariel’ settlement in the central part of the West Bank.

According to Israeli sources, surveillance video shows the assailant getting off of a shared taxi near the entrance to Ariel, the largest Israeli settlement in the West Bank.

The assailant then allegedly approached Ben Gal, who was standing at a hitchhiking post for Israeli settlers, and stabbed him several times before fleeing.

Following the killing of the Israeli settler, Israeli forces carried out a wide-scale search campaign in several villages and towns located to the north of Salfit, blocked roads and declared these areas to be closed military zones, according to local sources.

Ben Gal taught at two religious Jewish seminaries, both of them located in Israeli settlements: one in Givat Smuel, and the other in Har Bracha settlement, according to the Israeli daily Haaretz.

Ben Gal was transferred to hospital, with critical injuries in his upper extremities, where he succumbed to his wounds shortly after.

The Israeli daily, Haaretz, reported that Abdul-Hakim’s mother is from Haifa, while his father is from Nablus, in the northern West Bank.

In the aftermath of the fatal stabbing, dozens of Israeli paramilitary settlers gathered along roads in the area around Salfit, and the entrances to the villages of Hares and Kifl Hares, and attacked passing Palestinian cars with stones.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement following the death of the settler, saying that Israeli military forces “are in pursuit of the murderers. We will exact our judgment.”

The Hamas party also issued a statement, saying the attack is a direct response to Donald Trump’s unilateral declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a declaration that effectively denies the existence of over a million Palestinians who live in Jerusalem.

Itamar was from Har Bracha settlement, in the northern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Raziel Shevach

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January 9, 2018: Raziel Shevach, 35, an Israeli settler, was shot and killed Tuesday while driving near a colonial outpost, near Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank.

The Israeli daily Haaretz reported that Dr. Guy Elad, a doctor at the Meir Medical Center, told their reporter that the victim “arrived at the hospital without a pulse, with no breath and no life signals.

“He was rushed to the trauma room, where advanced resuscitation actions were performed and unfortunately despite our efforts his death was determined.”

The gunman or gunmen who fired the fatal shots fled the scene, and Israeli forces have locked down all nearby Palestinian villages and towns, preventing Palestinian civilians from going anywhere outside their homes.

The soldiers are also conducting house-to-house searches in the town of Jit, which is the town whose land was illegally annexed by Israel, to construct the Israeli settler-only road, and the colonialist outpost of Havat Gilad.

In addition, the Israeli military has closed the entrances to the city of Nablus, and are preventing all entry and exit from the city. The closure wreaked havoc on the evening commute for students and workers, many of whom were forced to remain in their workplaces or schools overnight after being prevented from returning home.

Shevach, who lived in Havat Gilad, was driving on Route 60, which is a major Israeli highway constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank, when he was shot at by a passing vehicle. Palestinians are forbidden from driving on Route 60 without first obtaining hard-to-get Israeli permits.

Even with permits, Palestinian drivers are frequently subjected to stops and seizures of their vehicles and licenses by Israeli police and soldiers when they drive on Route 60 and other colonial Israeli byways.

Abu Obeida, the spokesperson of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said the “Nablus shooting is the first retaliation with live fire, and comes to remind the enemy, and those who support it, that what is coming is much bigger – what you fear is yet to come, the West Bank will remain a dagger in your abdomen.”

Following the fatal shooting, the Israeli army imposed a strict siege on all villages and towns in the Nablus governorate, and invaded many villages, including Sorra, Iraq-Burin, and all southern areas, including New Nablus, al-Makhfiyya, before initiating extensive searches and confiscated surveillance tapes and equipment.

The army deployed a large number of soldiers in Nablus, in addition to calling for more military units to operate in the governorate, in preparation for a massive invasion and military operations.

Israeli media outlets said that the military received orders for carrying out a large-scale military operation, inside many villages and towns, in Nablus.

Meanwhile, dozens of colonist settlers closed Yitzhar road, while dozens more gathers at the Huwwara military roadblock, south of Nablus, before throwing rocks at dozens of Palestinian cars.

Palestinian medical sources said a young man from ‘Awarta village, suffered various cuts and bruises after being attacked by Israeli settlers.

It is worth mentioning that the Israeli army have killed 32 Palestinians, including two children, since early October 2017. Shevach is the first Israeli casualty since then.

Raziel was from Gilad, an Israeli outpost near Nablus in the northern part of the West Bank. Source: IMEMC.