Police are investigating a violent West Bank incident outside the Adei Ad outpost, in which the IDF alleged that a Palestinian man was shot to death by settlers during clashes on Saturday afternoon.
The incident began with Palestinians stabbing a young Israeli man outside the outpost and ended with violent clashes which involved the IDF, on the edge of the nearby Palestinian village of al-Mughayir.
Hamdi Taleb Na’san, 38, was killed in that clash and 30 other Palestinians were wounded, according to Palestinian media.
Na’san was one of four Palestinians killed over the weekend.
Two were killed in violent incidents with the IDF and one during a car chase with Israeli police in east Jerusalem.
The office of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas warned that Na’san’s death had the potential to spark renewed West Bank violence and blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government for an escalation of violence against Palestinians.
“This [escalation] will lead to serious consequences, further tension and the creation of a dangerous and uncontrollable atmosphere,” Abbas’s office said in a statement that was published by the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
The incident that drew the most attention, however, was the violence outside Adei Ad, which is located in the Binyamin region, close to the Shiloh settlement.The Israeli hiker who was stabbed said he had sought a place of solitude about 200 meters outside of Adei Ad.
“Suddenly I saw three Arabs, who ambushed me, beat me and tried to drag me to their village,” the hiker said. “I managed to escape to Adei Ad and on the way, I understood I had been stabbed in my hand.
I saw blood.”
He alerted the community’s security team, which went in pursuit of the attackers.
Adei Ad spokesperson Tzuri Amior told KAN News that the community’s security team was joined by other security teams from the area.
That team, he said, was ambushed by 150 Arabs who attacked them with iron bars and stones.
According to a statement from Adei Ad, the security team fired in the air because they feared for their lives.
The IDF arrived and were also attacked, according to the statement, which explained that the soldiers fired deterrent shots and used riot dispersal methods.
It was not clear “who fired the shot that wounded the Palestinian [Na’san],” Amior told KAN News.
The IDF said that an altercation had occurred between a settler and a number of Palestinians near Adei Ad, during which the settler was lightly injured.
After that, another altercation occurred between settlers and Palestinians in the area, during which settlers used live fire, the IDF said.
A Palestinian was killed and a number of Palestinians were wounded, according to the IDF statement.
IDF and Border Police responded and used riot dispersal means.
According to Palestinian media, Na’san was a father of four and had spent eight years in an Israeli prison for security related offenses.
Residents of al-Mughayir claimed that the confrontation began after a group of Jewish settlers tried to “storm” the village. They said that residents were urged through mosque loudspeakers to “rise and defend the village against the settler assault.”
“Hamdi heard the call and rushed to the scene where the settlers were,” said Basem Abu Na’im, a village resident. “The residents clashed with the settlers, and then the army arrived. At least 30 people were wounded, one seriously, during the clashes with the soldiers and settlers.”
A local activist said the confrontation in which Na’san was killed took place in the northern part of the village.
“The martyr was shot by armed settlers,” he added.
Residents of the nearby village of Abu Falah also rushed to the scene after being alerted about the settlers’ presence in the area, he added.
The activist said that Akram Na’san, the owner of an agricultural field, asked the IDF soldiers who were in the area to stop the settlers from entering his land.
“The soldiers told him to go to the police,” he said. “The soldiers were watching from a distance of 50 meters when one of the settlers opened fire.
There were about 20 settlers in the area.”
According to the activist, the protesters threw stones at the settlers to prevent them from “invading” the village.
Kazem Haj Mohammed, a local activist, told the Quds Net news website that Na’san, who works in house construction, had served nine years in Israeli prison. He said that Na’san used to participate in the weekly demonstrations against the IDF and settlers in the village.
The Palestinian Authority strongly condemned the killing of Na’san and held the Israeli government and “settler gangs” fully responsible for the incident.
Abbas’s ruling Fatah faction condemned the incident as a “real massacre” and “state terrorism.”
The Ramallah-based PA government renewed its call for providing international protection for the Palestinians.
On Friday, the IDF shot at three Palestinians suspected of throwing stones at Israeli cars on Route 60. One of the suspects, 17-year-old Ayman Hamed of Silwad, was killed.
He was buried in his village of Saturday.
Ehab Abed, 25, of Gaza, was killed Friday during clashes with the IDF near Israel’s southern border fence and was also buried Saturday in Gaza.Riad Mohammed Shamasneh, 28, from the village of Qattanah, was killed early Saturday morning in east Jerusalem during a car chase with Israeli police. He had been driving a stolen vehicle.