On
the morning of 13 Dec. 13 2018, a Palestinian opened fire at a
hitchhiking stop near the entrance to the settlement of Givat Assaf,
east of Ramallah. He killed two soldiers and seriously injured another
soldier and a woman.
Following the incident, large numbers of
settlers set out to attack Palestinians, particularly in the Hebron and
Nablus Districts. The attacks continued until the evening, with settlers
throwing stones at moving cars. B'Tselem investigated 10 incidents in
which four people required medical treatment.
These attacks were
predictable, yet the security forces did nothing to prevent them. In
half the incidents B'Tselem investigated, soldiers were present on the
scene, but in most cases, they did nothing to prevent the settlers from
attacking Palestinians and did not arrest any of them.
This behavior
by the security forces was also predictable. Settler attacks on
Palestinians, in the presence and under the protection of the security
forces, have long since become routine throughout the West Bank. It is
clear to Palestinians today that no-one will protect them and their
property and that no-one will be held to account when they are attacked.
Qassam
Nazzal attacked on the Huwarah-Jit road: Qassam Nazzal, 21, a truck
driver from Qabatiya in the Nablus District, was driving from Ramallah
to Tulkarm for his work. At about 11:00 A.M., he arrived at Huwarah
Checkpoint and discovered that the military had closed the checkpoint to
vehicles. He turned around and headed for the Huwarah intersection,
where he took the road leading to the village of Jit, which passes close
to the settlement of Yitzhar. As he neared the entrance to the
settlement, Nazzal noticed about 20 settlers by the side of the road. A
few soldiers and a military jeep were standing next to them. Some of the
settlers began to throw stones at the truck. Nazzal filmed the attack
on his cell phone, which he placed on the dashboard.
In a testimony
taken on 17 December 2018 by B'Tselem field researcher Abdulkarim Sadi,
Nazzal stated: They threw more than 10 stones at me, breaking the front
windshield and two windows on either side. Two stones entered the truck
and one of them hit me on my left arm. I was lucky I wasn’t hurt worse
than that. I managed to stay calm and control the truck. The settlers
attacked me in front of the soldiers, who stood there and didn’t stop
them throwing stones. One of the soldiers gestured to me to keep on
driving and that was all. I kept on driving until I got to my workplace
in Ramallah. My managers suggested I go to hospital to get checked. At
a-Zakat Hospital they x-rayed me and saw that nothing had been broken. I
just had bruises. Those were some terrifying moments. It was really
hard