Violation: Settlers from “Gosh Etzion” illgal settlement.

Location : Baqush – Nahalin town / Bethlehem governorate.

Date: August 08^th 2019.

Perpetrator: Settlers of “Gosh Etzion”.

Victims : Family of Foad Najajra.

Description:

In the early morning hours of Thursday, August 08^th 2019, a group of fanatic settlers from the illegal settlement of “Gosh Etzion” raided Nahalin village and attacked Foad Najajra’s house in Nahalin and destroyed his properties.

Reportedly, the perpetrators were masked, and attacked the house while Foad Najajra was in his night shift at the hospital, Foad is a doctor in a Bethlehem hospital, His wife and three children were alone when the attack occurred, the children were frightened, and after the attackers managed to open the door, they locked the family in one room and started breaking the house.

Foad’s brother told LRC:

“Foad’s house is far from the town’s other houses, so it took time before the town’s people knew about the attack, and when they got to the house, the settlers had already smashed everything in the house.”

Noteworthy, since The Israeli occupation accuses two Palestinian youths of being involved in murdering an Israeli soldier “Dvir Sorik” close to “Gush Etzion” illegal settlement, barbaric attacks against Palestinians are increasing rapidly.

Nissreen Abu Ghlos from Nahalin municipality told LRC :

“This incident devastated us all , the Israeli occupation’s intention is to take over C area lands in Nahalin , so they carry out attacks against Palestinians  in order to push them to leave their lands.”

The following table shows more information about the targeted family:

The Israeli occupation authorities did not respond to any complaints filed through the Palestinian Liaison Office on settler’s attacks against Palestinian families and/or their properties. The attack against Foad Najajra’s family will have an impact on Foad’s little children psychological health , as they do not feel safe anymore even when they in their own home.

Photos 1-5: scenes from the attack

Nahalin: [1]

The village is located 10km to the south west of Bethlehem and 3.5 km to the east of the armistice line of 1949.

The village's total area is 18,858 dunums including 890 dunums of built-up area, inhabited by8741 people according to the PBS statistics of 2017.

Israel has confiscated 4,283 dunums from the village lands 3,583 dunums of which for colonial expansion purposes and 700 dunums for the favor of bypass roads. There are 8 colonies founded on the village land, namely (Beit Ein, Tsoref, Majdal Oz, Jabot, Kfar Etzion, Efrat, Illit, Rosen Tsurem and Allon Shevut).

The contents of this document is the sole responsibility of LRC and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the European Union

[1] GIS-LRC