ABU FALAH, Palestinian Territories: When Israeli settlers attacked their West Bank village of Abu Falah, Milia Hamayel told her son not to try to fight them off, but the 30-year-old went to defend a friend’s land anyway.
“I called him two or three more times and he didn’t answer. After that — may God have mercy on him — that was it,” she told AFP, her lips trembling as she looked at a framed picture of her son, Thaer.
A little while later Thaer was dead, shot and killed alongside another man from the village, Palestinian authorities said. A third Palestinian man died from suffocation after the Israeli army fired tear gas, they said.
While the world’s attention is focused on the US-Israeli war with Iran, the Israeli-occupied West Bank has experienced a surge in deadly settler violence.
Since the start of the month, six Palestinians have been shot dead in settler attacks, according to a tally of data from the Ramallah-based health ministry.
