Thousands of Palestinians furious over deadly Israeli raids in Nablus this week held midnight marches on Friday throughout the West Bank.
Protesters took to the streets in response to a call for demonstrations by the Lion’s Den group.
Clashes ensued between the protesters and Israeli forces that tried to disperse them. Dozens of Palestinians were wounded.
A group of armed settlers from a nearby outpost descended on the village of Qusra and Palestinians went into the street to see what was happening late Thursday, said Ghassan Douglas, the Palestinian official who monitors Israeli settlements in the Nablus region.
After midnight, one of the settlers opened fire at the residents, hitting one man in the stomach and another in the thigh. Douglas said the shooting was unprovoked.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, the two injuries were serious.
The Lion’s Den called on Thursday Palestinians to take to the streets to show loyalty to the 11 martyrs of the Nablus massacre committed by Israeli forces.
Meanwhile, retired Israeli commander Lt. Col. Yaron Buskila commented that the third intifada has begun.
“The path of this intifada could lead to the collapse of the Palestinian Authority if Israel fails to take adequate deterrence measures,” he warned.
Nablus was the scene of an Israeli military raid that set off a fierce gunbattle on Wednesday, killing several Palestinians, including two men aged 72 and 61, and a 16-year-old boy, and wounded scores of others. Palestinian militant groups claimed six of the dead as members.
The bloodshed extended one of the deadliest periods in years in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year. Palestinian attacks on Israelis in 2023 have killed 11 people.
Following Friday prayers at the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem, Palestinians chanted and protested against the deadly raid in Nablus, as well as a crackdown on Palestinian prisoners by Israel’s right-wing government.
The northern West Bank in particular has seen a surge of settler attacks. Many villages in the area have gradually become sandwiched between settlements and unauthorized outposts that house particularly ideological settlers.
Last month, leading Israeli human rights group B'Tselem recorded a string of incidents near Nablus — from settlers attacking Palestinians with stones in Qusra to torching Palestinian cars in Aqraba. Earlier this month, a settler shot and killed a Palestinian in the farming town of Salfit.
