Walla!
Hawara – no man’s land: “an atmosphere of if there is no one for me…”
Shortly after the attack in which the Hillel abd Yagel Yaniv brothers were murdered, word of a protest in the nearby settlements spread on WhatsApp. From there it escalated into riots that led to the burning of houses and cars in the Palestinian village. “It was an unusual reaction,” explains a resident of Yitzhar. Another resident claims: “Those who feel abandoned – prefer to fight”
Shlomi Heller, Walla news, 02/03/2023
After a bloody week, in which three Jews were murdered in attacks in Hawara and the Bekaa, the settlements on the hill in Samaria are not moved by the shock following the riots in Hawara. There they point the finger of blame at the IDF, which they claim contained the escalation in the sector, and did not provide a sufficient security response in the axes. The IDF was also surprised by the extent of the riots. A security official said in a conversation with Walla! that the forces in the field focused on the hunt for the terrorist, and it took time to strengthen the forces in the field, until peace was restored in Hawara.
[The IDF was also surprised by the scale of the riots. A soldier in Hawara, February 27, 2023 (Photo: Flash 90, Eric Marmor)]
A resident of Yitzhar told Walla!: “What we saw this week was really a very unusual reaction, the likes of which I do not remember. The reason for this is very simple: people are tired of the fact that every day the wounded are counted here. Tired of the bloody routine, tired of the murder in the streets.”
He added that the Jewish residents “are tired of this every day people and children throw stones here and there is no response.
This week’s attack comes after 11 murders in the last month and especially after hundreds of shooting attacks, Molotov cocktails, stones , real lynchings, burning tires and IEDs on Samaria roads.”
The resident says that the main focal point is Hawara road. “If you want, Route 1 of Judea and Samaria. Every day three or four drivers, families and children passing by on the road are stoned here. So people got fed up, and went out to protest. The army instead of listening to the protest tried to eradicate it in any way, if it is a collective punishment of blocking roads, Dispersing protests with stun grenades or violent arrests, and the frustration only increased. We demanded security, and the system repeatedly ignored us, and only fought us.”
“People are tired of the bloody routine.”
in Hawara, and the murder of two Jews. “Two brothers, shot at point blank range,” he adds, “every resident here feels that tomorrow it could be him, because the day before he grabbed a stone, or something else, and now his neighbor has been shot and killed. So yes, if I don’t have me, who will I have?” If I don’t take care of my own safety, no one will.
Our security has been betrayed. You can say until tomorrow: ‘Keep statehood, keep the law,’ but a person who feels that his life has been violated prefers to fight for his life, even if it is less pleasant, and he will receive condemnations.”
After the serious attack on Hawara road, in which the brothers Hillel and Yagel Yaniv were murdered, the messages in the settlers’ WhatsApp groups heralded a series of protests at central intersections in Yosh, and in particular in Samaria. Tapuh. When the protesters arrived at the scene, marches into Hvara developed, and a short time later they degenerated into a series of burning cars, shops and houses. All this while in the heart of Hvara, the IDF is working with special forces to locate the terrorist. Security Forces and IDF soldiers were stationed at the entrances to Hawara, but they had difficulty repelling the rioters.
“This activity resulted in a very good result,” says an official in the settlement at the back of the mountain. “The Arabs are hysterical, villages in all of Iosh are calling the authorities to ask for protection and shelter from the angry settlers. The Arabs can’t get their noses out into the streets. They are talking about Deir Yassin. It just sowed fear in all the surrounding villages.
As far as the residents are concerned, here, the enemy has finally received a serious blow.”
According to him, the war against the Palestinians must also be based on collective punishment. “In the end, a terrorist does not act alone,” he says, “in the village of Hawara, they posted messages of support for the attack on their Facebook page, hundreds of likes of laughter and support. They helped the terrorist escape. A few months ago, they held a ceremony at the school in Hawara for martyrs like Udai Tamimi, and they are partners Full of support for this attack. That’s why now they are kidnapping. People from many localities on the back of the mountain and beyond took part in this activity. It’s not about guys from one locality. Everyone hopes that the state will rise up and do it on its own, to bring back Yehuda 101, but until then – we won’t go like lambs to the slaughter”.
“The activity led to a very nice result.” The damage of the riots in Hawara (Photo: Avi Rokah)
Haftziva Shani, a resident of Yitzhar who was hit with rocks along with her children on the Hawara route a few days before the attack, says: “We left Yitzhar through Hawara towards the center to shop for Purim. Towards the end of the Hawara route there are shops on the edge of the road. Arabs ran from there with a rock in their hand, and threw it at the windshield the front and smashed it.
The rock flew towards the back seat, causing a direct hit to the head of my 5-year-old daughter, who was sleeping in her chair.”
At this point, she quickly drove to the Tufum intersection, and called the MDA. “I realized that the children were injured, but I didn’t know what their condition was,” she says, “they started crying and I tried to calm them down. You explained to them what happened, that it was not our fault, that the Arabs of Yada built a stone. There were soldiers who took care of them at the Toph intersection, and then the MDA vehicle directed us to Schneider. The girl was hit in the cheek and neck, and I and the two children were mostly hit by glass. We understand that this is an impact that can kill. The stone was also very large, and so was the force.”
Shani says that the stone attacks happen in the area every day, several times, and most are not published at all. “There are soldiers in Hawara, but they throw the stones in front of their eyes, and they don’t do anything. It’s not that they aren’t there, but they don’t do anything to the children who throw stones, neither to them nor to their parents, and that’s the problem.”
Those who commute on the roads in the area must travel through Hvara. The shooting attack, February 26, 2023 (Photo: TPS)
“Many stolen cars were burned there.” The damage of the riots in Hawara (Photo: Flash 90, Eric Marmor)
Those who travel on the roads in the area, she says, must travel through Hvara. “You learn to drive in Hawara, how fast to drive there, and when you learn that, you gain confidence. But people are afraid to pass there. There is not a resident there who hasn’t been hit by a Molotov cocktail, or a stone. We must not accept this reality. People are killed here.”
Shani says that in 2006, there was a brigade in Samaria who decided that after throwing stones, they would close the shops in Hawara Street. According to her, when the village realized the situation, they hired some guards to prevent the throwing of stones, and then there was peace. However, a left-wing association decided to threaten the brigade In a petition to the High Court, then he stopped the policy of closing the stores, and the throwing of stones resumed.
“What works against them is collective punishment, there is nothing to be done,” she adds. “In the end, it’s not that there is one terrorist in every Hawara. There are quantities there. If they know that it will hurt them, their livelihood is important to them, their family is important to them, and if they know that the IDF is reacting disproportionately, it will stop. There were years when it was much calmer here, but the deterrence has worn off. There was a lot of fire and a lot of smoke, it did help deterrence a little.”
She also does not see the events this week in Hawara as they were presented in the media…. “True, there was a lot of fire and smoke, but not much was actually burned,” she says. “A lot of stolen cars were burned there, which is your car and mine. It hurt us that most people in Israel didn’t know about the attack at all. There were no proportions in the media coverage between the attack and the events in Hawara. It really hurts. You feel that your blood is not important, but the burned mashtuba (erased in Arabic, no license plate).”
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MASHTUBA:
(Arabic transliteration: mashtouba, literal translation: erased) is an Arabic term that has also entered Hebrew for vehicles that have been taken off the road due to theft or obsolescence, but continue to be driven in an illegal and dangerous manner. The phenomenon is prevalent mainly in the territories of Judea and Samaria, in the Palestinian Authority and in the Negev region.
The main danger from Mashtuba vehicles is safety defects and mechanical malfunctions in critical systems, which cause a large and fatal involvement of these vehicles in traffic accidents. Since the identification plates of these vehicles are not valid, there is difficulty in apprehending and punishing their owners.
Mashtuba vehicles may even be used for the benefit of terrorist attacks, because many times the Mashtuba vehicles have a yellow license plate – so they do not arouse suspicion among the soldiers and residents, and there is no possibility of linking the vehicle to the hazard.
