En Cisjordanie, une vague de violences meurtrières menées par des colons israéliens
When Israeli settlers attacked her village in the occupied West Bank, Milia Hamayel begged her son not to join the residents who were trying to repel them. In vain.
Thaer Hamayel is among the six Palestinians killed since the beginning of March in this wave of violence.
At a time when the world's eyes are fixed on the war in the Middle East, the latest figures show a surge in deadly attacks carried out by Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967.
During the night of March 7-8, at least 70 settlers, according to local authorities, who came from the surrounding area, invaded the village of Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, and ransacked farms.
Milia Hamayel then phoned her son. "Don't leave, please don't leave," she begged. "I called him two or three more times, but he didn't answer," she told AFP, her lips trembling as she looked at a framed photo of the young man.
Thaer, 30, and one of his relatives, Farea Hamayel, 57, were killed by settler fire while trying to defend the village. A third villager died after inhaling tear gas fired by the Israeli army, according to Palestinian and UN sources.
The army told AFP that soldiers had been sent to Abu Falah to disperse the crowd. It condemned the violence perpetrated by settlers and confirmed the deaths of three Palestinians, one of whom died of asphyxiation, without specifying whether soldiers were involved.
According to Palestinian authorities, a total of six Palestinians have been killed by settler fire in the West Bank since March 2, in addition to the villager who died of asphyxiation. The latest victim was killed on Saturday in the northern part of the territory.
By comparison, up to the beginning of March, 24 Palestinians had been killed by settlers, according to the UN, since the start of the war in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, which had already caused a surge in violence in the West Bank.
"When the war with Iran began, the settlers saw it as a golden opportunity," says Ibrahim Hamayel, another villager from Abu Falah.
"The combination of the increasing and deadly use of live ammunition by Israeli militias and the expansion of attacks targeting large, already established Palestinian communities indicates an intensification of ethnic cleansing efforts carried out by Israel, under the cover of the war with Iran," notes the Israeli NGO B'Tselem, which monitors the situation in the occupied territories.
This spiral of violence coincides with a tightening of Israeli control over the West Bank in recent months, denounced by the UN as a "creeping annexation" of the territory.
More than 500,000 Israelis live in the West Bank - outside East Jerusalem - among approximately three million Palestinians, in settlements that the United Nations considers illegal under international law.
Five days later, in Abu Falah, bloodstains are still visible on the white rock, mixed with the reddish soil characteristic of the West Bank.
"They were all masked. Some of them were carrying firearms," says Ibrahim Hamayel, pointing to the place where Farea Hamayel died, in an olive grove.
Stone circles mark the two graves. A small Palestinian flag flies over one of them.
Palestinians and Israeli human rights defenders say these attacks, whose perpetrators are almost never brought to justice, are aimed at systematically driving Palestinians from their land.
According to the UN, 180 Palestinians have been displaced by this violence since the start of the war in the Middle East on February 28 and 1,500 since the beginning of 2026, which is already 90% of the total reached in 2025.
Mouath Qassam, another 32-year-old villager, also tried to repel the attackers in Abu Falah.
"They hit me on the head with a baton. I lost consciousness and woke up in the hospital," he told AFP from his home, with a large bandage on his forehead and yellowing bruises under his eyes.
"Every day, the settlers establish new outposts" in the village, he says. "We are absolutely not safe."
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