November 9, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. EST.
Settlers stage a sit-in at the main intersection Wednesday in front of the Shavei Shomron settlement, closing traffic to Palestinian cars, as well as the only road to Nablus from the south of the West Bank. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post)
UMM AL-KHEIR, West Bank — After dark in the South Hebron Hills, parents lie awake, listening for the settlers.
A crunch of wheels on the dusty road means it’s time to scoop their children closer, to tell them they are loved, that they will be safe. By the time the engine cuts, car doors slam and the footsteps get louder, another night of terror is in motion.
In the Palestinian village of Umm al-Kheir, residents described masked men in army uniforms overrunning their community last week. The men smashed residents’ cellphones so no one could document the beatings that followed.
In nearby Susiya, five men in similar dress beat Ahmed Nawaja, 38, underneath his olive tree. His daughters cried, he said, as the attackers slammed their rifle butts down on his body.
Time of terror as settlers overrun Palestinian enclaves in the West Bank
Violence by Israeli settlers, long aimed at depopulating rural Palestinian parts of the occupied West Bank, had grown common in the months since Prime Minister President Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in late December — at the head of a coalition that included far-right settler activists who have been convicted of anti-Arab incitement and have advocated for the annexation of the West Bank. …
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