Yuval Abraham reports:

While the world focuses on the Hamas massacre in southern Israel and Israel’s massive bombing of the Gaza Strip, settlers in the occupied West Bank are taking advantage of the chaos to attack and expel Palestinians from a number of small villages.

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 51 Palestinians in the West Bank since Saturday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. At least two villages, Al-Qanub and Wadi Al-Sik, have been entirely depopulated as a result of the violence by Israeli settlers.

A Palestinian in At-Tuwani, a village in the Masafer Yatta region of the South Hebron Hills, is in critical condition after a settler, accompanied by an Israeli soldier, invaded the community on Friday and shot him at point blank range. The attack was documented by the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem. [Continue reading…]