Israeli occupation army assaults two children in the West Bank

Two Palestinian children were injured with bruises and fractures on Thursday evening, after the Israeli army beat them in the town of Sinjil, northeast of Ramallah, in the central occupied West Bank.

The official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, quoted unnamed local sources as saying that “the occupation forces severely beat the child, Alaa (11 years old), in front of his family’s home in the town of Sinjil, where he suffered bruises and contusions, and was transferred for treatment to a health center in the town.”

The sources told the agency that “the occupation army assaulted another child (17 years old) in the town, seized his phone, and the soldiers sent a message via a WhatsApp group for the town’s residents, containing threats to them.”

Eyewitnesses reported that the soldiers wrote in the letter: “The army has arrived in the village, and they will kill anyone who causes trouble. You better hide for now, because we came to fight, not to play. We stopped being nice, now it is war.”

Witnesses explained that “the occupation forces fired live bullets and tear gas at homes, stormed shops, and set up a checkpoint inside the town.”

The town of Sinjil is subjected to repeated raids by the Israeli army, which has set up a checkpoint at its main entrance, obstructing the movement of residents. It has also been subjected to attacks by settlers who have burned lands and trees there.

In early October, Israeli bulldozers began bulldozing land along Road No. 60, adjacent to Sinjil and connecting the Ramallah and Nablus governorates, which settlers use, to build a barbed wire wall that isolates the town from its surroundings.

In parallel with the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, the Israeli army expanded its operations in the West Bank, while settlers escalated their attacks on Palestinians, their property, and their sources of livelihood, leading to the martyrdom of 783 Palestinians, the injury of about 6,300 others, and the arrest of about 11,000, according to official Palestinian sources.

With absolute American support, Israel is waging an ongoing genocide in Gaza, leaving more than 147,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing, amidst massive destruction and famine that has killed dozens of children and elderly people, in one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.

(Anatolia)