URGENT: Escalation of settler terror in Umm Al Khair, West Bank June 29th, Shimon Atia, a known settler, arrived with his flock of sheep and roamed freely through the village, ultimately trespassing into the backyard of a local resident named Salim. Shimon refused to leave, intimidated residents, and created disturbances throughout the day. He then occupied a patch of land next to a resident’s home — land that includes a toilet and a cemetery — and declared it his own. Israeli authorities enforced Shimon’s illegal land grab, stating that the Palestinian house’s backyard is “territory of the State of Israel”.

June 30th, at around 8 p.m., Shimon returned to Umm Al Khair, this time armed with a gun and a large stick. He assaulted activists and harassed the residents. When Israeli police and military forces arrived, instead of protecting the villagers, they allowed Shimon to remain on the land he had seized and forced the residents behind a fence. Today, July 1st, Shimon came back yet again, destroying the repaired fence and trees. Footage shows that during each intrusion, he has threatened and attempted to assault residents while shouting at them. Each time, Israeli security forces have arrived but have not intervened to stop the settler’s attacks.

This incident comes amid a broader surge in settler violence across Masafer Yatta and other parts of the occupied West Bank, where communities are facing repeated home demolitions, land seizures, and assaults. Local residents and human rights groups warn that these unchecked attacks are part of a systematic effort to forcibly displace Palestinian families from their land.

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