Bilal Shehada Bawatna

February 12, 2021: Bilal Shehada Bawatna, 52, was killed, and two other Palestinians were injured, after they were rammed by an illegal Israeli colonist’s car, while participating in a nature walk activity in the Northern Plains of the occupied West Bank.

Mo’taz Bisharat, a Palestinian Authority official who monitors Israel’s colonialist activities in Tubas, said one man was killed and two were injured, all from the Ramallah governorate in central West Bank, when they were struck by the speeding colonist’s car near Ein al-Baida and Bardala Junctions in the Northern Plains of the Jordan Valley.

Bisharat added that the Palestinians came to the area to participate in a nature walk and exploration in the Northern Plains.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) rushed to the scene and moved the corpse of Bilal Shehada Bawatna, 52, to a Palestinian hospital, while Israeli medics moved the wounded residents to the al-Afula hospital.

Bawatna is from the Sateh Marhaba neighborhood in the al-Biereh city, north of Ramallah.

Eyewitnesses said the Israeli colonist was driving at an exceedingly high speed when he rammed the Palestinians, killing Bawatna and wounding the two others.

The funeral procession of Bilal Shehada was held, on Friday evening, starting from Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, heading towards Sateh Marhaba neighborhood, before the Palestinians took his body to the al-Ein Mosque in the city, and conducted the burial ceremony in the Shuhada Graveyard in the city.

Bawatna is the fifth Palestinian to be killed by Israelis this year.

On February 10, a Palestinian man, identified as Azzam Jamil Amer, from Kafr Qalil village near Ramallah, was killed after being rammed by an Israeli colonists’ car near Salfit, in central West Bank.

On January 31, the soldiers shot and killed Mohammad Hussein Amro, 35, from Halhoul, north of the southern West Bank city of Hebron,

On January 26, the soldiers shot and killed Atallah Mohammad Rayyan, 17, near Salfit in central West Bank.

On January 11, the Israeli police killed Bashar Zubeidat, 18, during a protest against police violence near Haifa.

Bilal was from Ramallah, in the central West Bank. Source: IMEMC

Azzam Jamil Amer

February 11, 2021: Azzam Jamil Amer died after being rammed by a speeding Israeli colonialist settler’s car near Salfit, in northwestern West Bank.

Medical sources said the man, Azzam Jamil Amer, from Kafr Qalil village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus was struck by the Israeli colonists’ car, before he was moved to an Israeli hospital where he succumbed to his serious wounds.

The Israeli police said it opened an investigation to determine whether the incident was a traffic accident or a deliberate attack.

Salfit Governor Abdullah Kamil said the Israeli colonist deliberately targeted the young man at the junction of Kifl Hares.

Azzam Jamil Amer with his children

Kamil held Israel responsible for the young man’s death, adding that Israel’s colonies are illegal under International Law since they are built on occupied lands, and constitute war crimes.

The deceased husband, and father, is a day laborer who was returning home from work when the incident took place.

It is worth mentioning that many Palestinians, including children, have been killed, and dozens injured, in similar incidents across the occupied West Bank.

In August of 2020, a young Palestinian man was killed when a speeding Israel colonists’ car struck him near a military roadblock, south of Tulkarem, in northern West Bank.

The Palestinian has been identified as Eqab Bashir Darawsha, 21, from Tallouza village, north of Nablus, in the northern West Bank. Azzam was from Kafr Qalil village, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus. Source: IMEMC 

Khaled Maher Nofal

February 5th, 2021: Khaled Maher Nofal, 34, was shot and killed by a paramilitary illegal Israeli colonialist settler near the central West Bank city of Ramallah, after he reportedly attempted to break into a house.

According to the Israeli military, Khaled, who was unarmed, attempted to break into a home in the illegal Sadeh Ephraim colony, which was installed on privately-owned Palestinian lands.

The army also claimed that, at about 3:45 in the morning, the Palestinian drove his car fast through a field, and stopped in front of a house at the edge of the colony, and allegedly tried to enter through a locked door.

It added that a guard woke up and began a physical confrontation with the man before another guard shot and killed him.

Radi Abu Fkheitha, the head of Ras Karkar Village Council, said the army informed the family Khaled Maher Nofal, 34, that he was shot and killed, and accompanied his father, Maher, and his brother, Mohammad, to the scene to identify him and his bloody clothes.

It is worth mentioning that Khaled is a married father of a boy, only four years of age, and works at the Palestinian Finance Ministry.

He was near the ar-Reesan Mountain, which was recently illegally confiscated by Israeli colonists who established the Sde Ephraim colony on the stolen Palestinian lands.

After the man was shot, Palestinian medics rushed to the area, but the soldiers prevented them from reaching him, and took his corpse away.

His family denied the Israeli allegations, and said that the guard or the soldiers did not have to deliver fatal shots, especially since he was unarmed, and could have been easily arrested.

They added that their son was executed in cold blood, and that the soldiers confiscated his car, in addition to invading and ransacking the family’s home and interrogated them.

“He just went to check on his land in the ar-Reesan Mountain where Israeli has been trying to illegally annex the lands of the Palestinians in the area for its colonialist activities,” the family stated, “He owns dozens of Dunams of lands there.”

Khaled was from Ras Karkar village , in the Ramallah District, in central West Bank. Source: IMEMC