Israeli soldier arrested after shooting Palestinian farmer dead

An Israeli soldier was arrested by the IDF after fatally shooting a Palestinian farmer who was harvesting olives near the northern West Bank village of As-Sawiya on Saturday, reported The Times of Israel.

According to the IDF, the Israeli soldier was arrested on Sunday “for the purposes of investigation” following “a confrontation developed on Shabbat between a number of Palestinians and Israeli civilians close to the Rehelim settlement in the Samaria district.”

It added that “it is suspected that an IDF soldier on leave used his military weapon and fired it during the incident, causing the death of the Palestinian.”

A video captured on Saturday reveals four Israeli settlers dressed in white attire, white kippas, near an olive grove near the illegal settlement of Rehelim. The video also shows one of them shooting from his assault rifle, but does not reveal the target of the gunshot.

Attorneys representing the soldier under suspicion of Saleh’s killing, claim that he was assaulted by “a number of Palestinians who threw stones at him and his family while they were hiking in the fields close to the settlement where they live, Rehelim.”

However, according to The Times of Israel, Etkes, an anti-settlement activist, insists that the video evidence indicates that the settlers were not in close proximity to the Rehelim settlement during the shooting incident shown in the footage, and neither were they in any danger.

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Furthermore, he alleged that extremist settlers have been taking advantage of the attacks against Gaza since 7 October after the Palestinian Resistance initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack, including infiltrations into Israel.

Israeli human rights organisation, Yesh Din, confirmed last week that extremist Jewish settlers in the Occupied West Bank, protected by Israeli soldiers, have carried out more than 100 attacks against Palestinians since 7 October. The attacks are reported to have taken place in 62 different locations in the West Bank.

In a statement with 30 non-profits, including B’Tselem, it issued a statement calling on the international community “to stop the state-backed wave of settler violence which has led, and is leading to, the forcible transfer of Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”

They said that “no fewer than 13 herding communities have been displaced” and that “many more are in danger of being forced to flee”, if action was not taken.

The Palestinian Health Ministry announced today that at least 125 Palestinians have been killed in the Occupied West Bank since 7 October.

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