On October 12th, 2023, just five days after the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel and the start of Israel’s war on Gaza—which experts have termed a genocide—a group of armed Israeli settlers arrived at the Palestinian herding village of Wadi al-Seeq in Area C, the part of the occupied West Bank under full Israeli control. Protected by the Israeli army, the settlers beat the 200 residents of the village in broad daylight. According to Haaretz, some of the residents were “stripped to their underwear,” “photographed handcuffed,” “urinated on,” burned with cigarettes, and subjected to sexual violence. Speaking to Jewish Currents, Abderrahman Kaabneh, Wadi al-Seeq’s mukhtar (mayor), recalled that the settlers then gave residents one hour to leave the area. The entire herding community quickly took its flocks and fled on foot until it reached a strip of land west of the village, near the city of Ramallah. Fifteen months on, the people of Wadi al-Seeq remain displaced, living in small tents on lands only a few miles away from their homes, but with little hope of return. ….more
