November 30, 2017: Mahmoud Za’al Odeh, 46, was killed by an Israeli settler, after a group of settlers attacked Palestinian villagers on their lands, in Qusra village, south of Nablus, in the northern part of the West Bank.
Emad Jamil, a member of Qusra Village Council, said the attack was carried out by approximately 20 settlers who came from the illegal “Yesh Kod” outpost, which was built on private Palestinian lands, and assaulted the Palestinian and his family, before one of them shot Mahmoud.
The settlers also shot another Palestinian identified as Fayez Fathi Hasan, 47, with a live round in his leg.
Jamil added that the bullet exited through the Mahmoud’s chest, before the villagers tried to rescue him and move him to a hospital, but Israeli soldiers stopped them at Za’tara military roadblock for at least 30 minutes, and he bled to death.
Following his death, the soldiers allowed the Palestinians to pass, but again stopped them at Huwwara military roadblock, before taking his body from them, and moving it to their nearby Israeli army base.
After killing the Palestinian, the settlers fled to a nearby cave, and barricaded themselves there, until dozens of soldiers invaded the area, and surrounded the town, before removing them and taking them away.
“The colony where the Israeli assailants reside is nearly 15 kilometers away from the Odeh’s land,” Jamil said, “It is clear they infiltrated the area, close to many Palestinian homes, with one goal in mind, to commit murder – there have been many attacks by colonists in this area, including the burning, cutting and uprooting of trees.”
He also stated that, several years ago, Odeh built a small hut on his 7-Dunam land, and received many threats from the settlers, in addition to being repeatedly assaulted, while working on his land.
Hours after the fatal Israeli attack, dozens of settlers and soldiers invaded Qusra, before the army shot and seriously wounded one Palestinian in his pelvis, and injured many others, while the settlers also smashed the front shield and one of the windows of a Palestinian ambulance, wounding the driver in his eye.
The Palestinian Red Crescent identified the injuries among the Palestinians as:
- Two were shot with live rounds in the pelvis, and the leg.
- Two were shot with rubber-coated steel bullets.
- Two were assaulted and beaten by soldiers and settlers.
- One ambulance driver wounded in his eye.
- Scores of Palestinians suffered the effects of teargas inhalation.
Mahmoud was from Qusra village, near Nablus. Source: IMEMC
November 8, 2017: Atef al-Maqousi, 37, died from complications resulting from serious wounds he suffered in 1992, after Israeli soldiers shot him in his spine.