The total number of Palestinians killed this month is somewhere around 30, more than a person per day. It’s frankly difficult to keep up. On Wednesday (Jan 25), they killed two Palestinians, one 20 years-old and the other 17. The 17 year-old was reportedly holding a fake gun. The 20 year-old rushed officers at a check point (from what is visible in the video below, he doen’t appear to be armed). Their reponse was to kill him.

המחבל יצא מהרכב, ניסה לדקור את החיילים – ונוטרל: תיעוד ניסיון הפיגוע בשומרון@ItayBlumental pic.twitter.com/MMbRIjz2Aw

— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) January 25, 2023

And then there’s Thursday (Jan 26), in which they killed nine people in a raid in Jenin, plus one other fatally shot in al-Ram, while protesting what happened in Jenin. The Israelis say they were targeting militants. According to reports, they did target members of militias (how many is unclear), though of the nine killed was a 61 year-old woman. At least 20 others were injured. With such sophisticated weaponry and intelligence capabilities, you’d think they’d be more precise, but perhaps they simply don’t care.

We’re now hearing that seven people were fatally shot in a synagogue in East Jerusalem. Details are still scant, but of course, we do not celebrate killing worshippers in their place of worship. After all, this happened once to 30 Muslims praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron (al-Khalil) during Ramadan.

One can only imagine what it is like for people who have grown up with murder and immense oppression and repression from a hostile state.

Earlier this Month

Two Palestinians were killed last week, that already brought the total for this month to 15. There are reports, albeit not independently confirmed, that the two killed this week (Amer al-Khmour, 14, and Abu Dayyeh, 40) both left letters, final wills and testaments (more about the circumstances surrounding their deaths here).

While it is not possible for me to confirm the validity of these letters, here are some exerpts from them:

Amer al-Khmour (allegedly): “…I wish the people will start thinking, and wake up and realize that we are under a Zionist occupation.

I wish that the coming generations will have freedom in their hands, and I hope that all my brothers and friends and loved ones will be well…”

Abu Dayyeh (allegedly): “I found myself heeding the call of justice for our dignity, for the sanctity of the holy sites and the dignity of Islam and Muslims, next to which my life is cheap.

I felt the affront to this dignity with every child killed, with every house that is destroyed, with every man who is humiliated at a checkpoint and for every piece of land that is desecrated by the [Zionist] entity…

I was bewildered by the state of silence that has taken hold over the hearts of the cowardly, who have even been unable to even live in dignity…

I do not belong to any organization or party or movement, and have no affiliation with any of the factions that sold themselves as Palestinians…you [the political factions] have preferred to sit in your offices…”

It’s reported that such letters are not uncommon these days in the refugee camp where Amer al-Khmour lived (Dheisheh), especially among the youth, who pen them and keep them with them when they go out to face the IDF.

A sixteen year-old, Amer Abu Zeitoun, was also killed this month by Israelis. He was shot in the head during a raid of a refugee camp near Nablus.

The AP reports:

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa said Abu Zeitoun was killed as clashes erupted between Palestinian protesters and Israeli soldiers during an army arrest raid. It was not immediately clear if Abu Zeitoun was taking part in the confrontations.

Israeli forces shot dead 16-year-old Amer Ghazi Mahmoud Zeitoun early this morning during a raid on Balata refugee camp, outside Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank. Amer is the third Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces in 2023. pic.twitter.com/0X4gxsHXNK

— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) January 5, 2023

As per The AP news article linked above:

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of the secular Fatah party, described Abu Zeitoun not as an armed operative but as a member of its “monitoring group” that alerted militants to Israeli army surveillance and incursions.

May Allah grant him peace and mercy and strengthen his family’s resolve. Amin.

Burned to Death

Here’s another heart-wrenching story.

Back in 2015, Ahmad Dawabsheh was orphaned after at least one settler had set fire to his family’s home, burning his 18 month-old brother to death and killing his father (who succumbed to his injuries a week later). His mother died a month later (the exact cause of her death is not stated):

The 12-year-old survived one of the worst settler attacks in recent years when his family’s home in the village of Duma in the occupied West Bank district of Nablus was firebombed by Israeli settlers in 2015.

Ahmad’s 18-month-old brother Ali was burned to death.

His father Saad died a week later from his injuries. Riham, Ahmad’s mother, died a month after that.

Ahmad was 4 at the time. He sustained severe burns all over his body.

May Allah heal Ahmad’s wounds and strengthen him (ma sha Allah, it seems he already has great inner strength based on his words in this article) and his family. Amin. (Here is Ahmad meeting Real Madrid with his grandfather after the attack.)

In 2015, the perpetrator was charged (a somewhat rare development) with a triple life sentence. The lawyer that was defending him at the time is none other than Itamar Ben-Gvir, the current Minister of National Security under Bibi’s new government.

Given Ben-Gvir’s own political convictions and the fact that he is also a settler, it would be quite hard to believe that his defense of this criminal was based on him simply believing in due process and everyone’s right to a defense.

🔴Israel’s new National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ascended the Temple Mount early Tuesday morning

He said of the visit: ‘Our government will not give into Hamas threats’ pic.twitter.com/igUHvLwEsz

— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) January 3, 2023

While we can at least celebrate the locking away of this heinous criminal, as Ahmad’s uncle points out, this whole ordeal only transpired because settlers there are tolerated and supported by the Israeli government:

“It wasn’t enough…It will never bring back the dead. And it wasn’t the act of one person. If it wasn’t for the government and army supporting these settlers then they would never have come to burn our family alive.”

The BBC has recently uncovered footage of Raed el-Naasan (aged 16), who was fatally shot by the Israelis back in November, 2022. In this video, he does not appear to be throwing a molotov cocktail as the Israelis alleged. Instead, it looks instead like he was throwing a rock.

The moments before Raed al-Naasan, 21, was shot dead by Israeli troops on Tuesday are captured in video from a clearer angle. The army said it fired live ammunition at him in response to him throwing petrol bombs pic.twitter.com/Tpsl7oeKlR

— Tom Bateman (@tombateman) December 3, 2022

RELATED: Palestinian Youngsters: The Unsung Heroes of the Resistance

On January 11, one Palestinian shooter was fatally shot by Israelis while they were attempting make arrests in Balata. The shooter was likely from the Den of Lions militia. In a separate incident on the same day, another Palestinian was shot while stabbing “the local head of settlements” (in the southern West Bank) Yochai Damri.

I suppose it could be that two settlers have the same first and last name, but if not, this is likely Yochai Damri, who is quoted in 2015 as describing some local Palestinian villagers in an area (also in the southern West Bank) he wanted to settle as “criminals who invaded an area that doesn’t belong to them.”

Making Settlements ‘Legal’

Also back in November, Bibi and Ben-Gvir had agreed to legalise dozens of illegal West Bank settlements:

The two met on Wednesday, during which they agreed to retroactively legalise the outposts within 60 days of the government being sworn in, according to Israeli media.

Now, it appears, the time has come. The government recently announced its plans:

Netanyahu’s Likud party released the new government’s policy guidelines on Wednesday, the first of which promises to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel – in the Galilee, Negev, Golan Heights, and Judea and Samaria” – the Biblical names for the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

It’s hard to say with certainty, but my best guess is that such an announcement includes:

1) ‘legalizing’ settlements that are already present; and

2) building even more.

What will the moribund Palestinian Authority do about this? Right now, after the massacre in Jenin, they’ve said they will not work with Israel on “security matters.” Makes sense to me, but how long will that last?

Mistake after mistake has been made in the various ‘peace’ accords with Israel (think about Oslo for example and all the areas Israel was able to control in the West Bank because of it). In my mind, it’s all coming home to roost. We can’t by any stretch blame the Palestinian Authority for everything, but the lack of clarity in their dealings with Israel over their almost-sixty-year history, ideologically and even practically, has caused and continues to cause many problems.

Meanwhile, the Israeli left appears to be up in arms due to the Justice Minister Yariv Levin‘s proposed changes to the judicial system. If those changes are made, it seems that settlers like the one Ben-Gvir once represented would be even less-likely to be punished for their crimes against Palestinians. Allah knows best.

Also, how utterly cantankerous it is that the Israeli President Herzog and the NATO Secretary General met today, on the same day of this attack, and, amongst discussions of Ukraine and beyond (especially Iran), expressed their commitment to one another. Herzog said:

“We share the core values of democracy, of conflict resolution through peaceful means, as well as [a] basic commitment to safe-guarding the rule-based international order.“

I need a barf bag.

Funny, although Herzog mentioned their support for the Ukranian people, he seemed to forget to note that Israel has capped the number of non-Jewish Ukranians they will allow to seek refuge in their great, democratic, rules-based, illegal settlement-filled nation.

The massacre in Jenin was the deadliest in two decades. The US thus had to respond; Blinken will travel to region this weekend to meet with parties in Israel, the West Bank, and Egypt this weekend. Most curiously though, this trip had been planned for weeks, according to the AP. This must mean that Israel knew he was coming. Make of that what you will. Let’s hope for no phoniness in this drawn-out ‘peace’ process but expect nothing more than that.

May Allah help and protect those living under this occupation and strengthen their resolve. Amin.

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