BURQAH, Palestinian Territories: Mourners on Saturday attended the funeral of a Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, after the UN warned of a dramatic spike in such cases.
The Palestinian health ministry in a statement late Friday announced the death of Qusai Jamal Maatan, 19, saying he was “shot dead by settlers in the village of Burqa,” east of Ramallah.
At the funeral procession, Maatan was wrapped in a black and white keffiyeh head covering and Palestinian flag. Mourners carried his body through the village streets before his burial, said an AFP journalist at the scene.
Since early last year, the West Bank has seen a string of attacks by Palestinians on Israeli targets, as well as violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinian communities and regular raids by Israeli forces who say they are pursuing militants.
In a statement Saturday, the Israeli army cited Palestinian reports and witnesses as saying clashes broke out between Palestinians and Israeli civilians who were herding sheep near Burqa village.
Both sides threw rocks, the Palestinians let off fireworks and “Israeli civilians shot toward the Palestinians,” the army said.
“As a result of the confrontation, a Palestinian was killed, four others were injured, and a Palestinian vehicle was found burned. Several Israeli civilians were injured from rocks hurled at them,” it said, adding security forces arrived after the shooting.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War.
Excluding annexed east Jerusalem, the territory is home to nearly three million Palestinians and around 490,000 Israelis who live in settlements considered illegal under international law.
The last major case of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians occurred in June.
Revenge attacks on the West Bank village of Turmus Ayya and others followed the killing of four Israelis by Palestinian gunmen, which militant group Hamas said was in response to an Israeli army raid on Jenin refugee camp which killed six Palestinians.
The UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Friday said it had recorded 591 settler-related “incidents” in the West Bank in the first six months of 2023 resulting in Palestinian casualties, property damage, or both.
“That’s an average of 99 incidents every month, and a 39-percent-increase compared with the monthly average of the whole of 2022, which is 71,” spokesman Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva.
Also on Friday, the Palestinian health ministry said Israeli soldiers shot dead Mahmoud Abu Saan, 18, in the West Bank community of Tulkarm. The Israeli army said “suspects fired and hurled explosives and stones” at patrolling soldiers “who responded with live fire.”
Friday’s killings came three days after a Palestinian gunman wounded six people in a shooting at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank before being shot dead himself.
Mourners bury Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers
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Mourners bury Palestinian killed by Israeli settlers
- UN humanitarian agency OCHA had recorded 591 settler-related ‘incidents’ in the West Bank in the first six months of 2023
Dozens killed, 8,000 displaced as fighting escalates in Sudan’s North Darfur, UN says
- At least 19 civilians killed during ground assault in Jirjir area of North Darfur; 10 civilians killed and 9 injured in a drone attack on Sinja, capital of Sennar State
- UN calls on all involved in conflict to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and enable humanitarian access
NEW YORK CITY: Dozens of civilians, at least, have been killed and thousands displaced as fighting intensifies across Sudan, including North Darfur, the UN said on Tuesday as it warned of worsening humanitarian and nutritional crises.
Local reports suggested at least 19 civilians were killed during a ground assault on Monday in the Jirjir area of North Darfur, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
In a separate incident, 10 civilians were killed and nine injured in a drone attack on Sinja, the capital of Sennar State, according to the Sudan Doctors Network.
The UN is alarmed by the continuing harm to civilians and the growing numbers of displaced people as fighting spreads to several parts of the country, Dujarric said.
“The violence continues to drive people from their homes, and it must stop,” he added.
The International Organization for Migration estimates that more than 8,000 people were displaced on Friday from villages near Kernoi in North Darfur. Some fled to other parts of the state, others crossed the border into Chad seeking refuge, further straining already fragile humanitarian conditions, Dujarric said.
The displacements are unfolding alongside a worsening nutritional emergency in North Darfur, he added. A survey carried out last month by UNICEF and its partners in areas around Tina, Um Baru and Kernoi revealed acute levels of malnutrition far exceeding the World Health Organization’s emergency threshold of 15 percent. It found the highest rate of acute malnutrition, 53 percent, was in Um Baru.
Dujarric again called on all parties involved in the conflict to take immediate action to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, respect international humanitarian law, and enable rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access.
He urged donors to urgently scale up funding to help provide deliveries of life-saving aid, and warned that the continuing fighting and displacement risks worsening what is already one of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world.
The UN’s high commissioner for human rights, Volker Turk, will visit Sudan from Jan. 14 to 18. He will hold talks with authorities in Port Sudan, as well as representatives of civil society groups and the UN Country Team.
He will also visit Northern State, including Al-Afad gathering site to meet people displaced by the conflict from Darfur and Kordofan, as well as humanitarian partners working there.
