11 Palestinians are martyred within days to defend their land against Israeli occupation

Eleven Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured and arrested as a result of the Israeli occupation’s escalation of its aggression against the Palestinians in the occupied territories in 1948 and the West Bank during the past days. The people of the land are still steadfast and continue their  resistance in defense of their existence. The silence of the international community continues towards war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by the occupation.

In a statement to SANA reporter, Raed al-Atrash, cousin of the martyr Ahmed al-Atrash, 29, who was shot dead by the occupation last Friday, in the center of the city of Hebron in the West Bank, said: “The occupation fired several bullets in Ahmed al-Atrash chest, which led to his death instantly. The occupation is trying to spread terror in our hearts, but it will fail. All its crimes will not deter us from continuing the struggle and resistance to liberate our land and defeat the occupation.

For his part, Mahmoud Fathi, from the town of Ya’abad, south of Jenin, noted that the Palestinians will continue to stand firm on their land, which they sacrifice with their lives, regardless of the brutality of the occupation. He confirmed that they adhere to the resistance as the only option to restore the land and rights in fulfillment of the blood of the martyrs.

The head of the People’s coordination committee of Stop the Wall and settlements  Campaign Salah Al-Khawaja stated that 11 martyrs were shot by the occupation in the occupied territories in 1948 and the West Bank during the past ten days.

Al-Khawaja pointed out that in conjunction with the escalation of killings and repression by the occupation forces, settlers are intensifying their attacks on Palestinian cities and towns, as 860 attacks by settlers were documented last month, including burning fields, uprooting trees, seizing land, damaging homes and properties and shooting Palestinians.

For his part, Head of the Studies and Documentation Unit in the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority, Abdel Nasser Farwana, indicated that the occupation intensified the arrests, which last month included 470 Palestinians, most of them from Jerusalem, Ramallah and Hebron, within the framework of the occupation’s desperate and remarkably escalating attempts in recent times to break the will of steadfastness and continuous resistance to confront occupation plans of settlement, Judaization, displacement and ethnic cleansing.

The coordinator of the Committee to Combat the Wall and Settlement in the south of the West Bank, Ratib Jabour, said that the occupation forces and settlers intensified their incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque, the town of Silwan, and the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in occupied Jerusalem, and carried out dozens of attacks on Palestinians in the cities of Jenin and Hebron, in which 6 martyrs were killed during the past three days.

The Secretary-General of the Palestinian National Initiative, Mustafa Barghouti, stressed that the Palestinian people have no choice but the path of struggle and resistance to achieve their freedom. He called on the international community to take a serious action to stop the suffering of the Palestinian people and force the occupation to comply with the resolutions of international legitimacy.

The Palestinian presidency had renewed its call to the International Criminal Court to immediately start investigating the crimes of the occupation in order to stop them and hold those responsible to account, stressing the need for the international community to abandon double standards and provide protection to the Palestinians and to oblige the occupation to implement the resolutions of international legitimacy.

Inas Abdulkareem