2020-01-15

“Yitzhar” settlers attack a house in Madama / Nablus governorate

Image title

Violation: attacking a Palestinian family.

Location: Madama village / Nablus governorate.

Date: January 15th 2020.

Perpetrators: “Yitzhar” settlement.

Victims: House of Yehia Al-Qat.

Description:

Wednesday, January 15th 2020, Yitzhar settlers attacked a house that belong to Yehia Qat , assaulted his family , smashed the windows and stole two cell phones.

Yehia Al-Qat (41) told LRC:

“At 11:15 am of Wednesday , a group of settlers attacked my house while I was not there , and my family was at the garden, the attack included stone-throwing, and my wife was injured in her feet during the attack, and her friend Danya Nassar (28) is pregnant and she was visiting us at that time,   fainted while being chased by settlers during the attack , and my daughter Alma (4) is suffering a trauma after the barbaric attack.” 

Al-Qat asserted: settlers smashed our windows while they were trying to get to my wife and her friend Danya, after they got into the house to protect themselves from them.

Yehia’s wife Amina Al-Qat (30) told LRC:

“I was shocked of five settlers attacking our house while I was sitting with My friend Danya and my daughter Alma in the garden, we dropped our phones before we got inside the house and they stole them, we did not have any mean of communication, so we kept screaming hoping someone would hear us, people of the village only knew and showed up after 15 minutes, our fear during the attack cannot be described or imagined, if we hadn’t been able to run, only god know what our fate would had been , we need protection from those terrorists.!”

Noteworthy, settlers of the illegal Israeli settlement “Yitzhar” carry out several attacks against Palestinians and their properties in Madama.

Image title

Image title

Image title

Image title

Image title

Image title

Madama is 12km to the southeast of Nablus and is surrounded by Iraq Burin and Till (north), Asira al Qibliya (west), Burin (east), and Urif (south).

According to 2017 population projections , Madama is inhabited by 2,092 people.

It has a total area of 3824 dunums, 190 of which are built-up area of the village.

The Israeli occupation confiscated 118 dunums for Yitzhar colony which was built on Madama lands in 1983. The colony is inhabited by 400 colonists.

The Israeli occupation is not only taking over land and water resources of the village, but they are also targeting Palestinians residing there through attacking them on almost a daily basis.

Yitzhar:[2]

Yitzhar is translated to “olive oil”, the name of the town is related to olive oil milling.

Yitzhar was at first a military point “Nahal” established in 1/8/1983, then converted into a colony in 23/7/1984, it is about 8 km south west Nablus, on the main road that links Ramallah to Nablus.

It is built on Palestinian ground (the villages of Burin, Huwwara, ‘Einabus, ‘Urif, ‘Asira al Qibliya, and Madama), like any other Israeli colony.

The illegal colony was built with plan 86/1, and confiscated lands belong to Palestinian citizens , and located in natural block 8 from Burin lands, block 4 from Madma lands, block 1 from Asira Al-Qibliya and block 3 from Urif lands.

[1] GIS-LRC

[2] GIS-LRC