![Children wave the Palestinian flag in Khan al-Ahmar Village as it faces the threat of demolition in Jerusalem, on January 23, 2023. [Issam Rimawi - Anadolu Agency]](jpg/aa-20230126-30094493-30094486-villagers_determined_to_resist_the_order_of_eviction_in_jerusalems_khan_alahmarc032.jpg)
The Israeli authorities have forced six Palestinian families from the Al-Qaboun Bedouin community east of Ramallah in the central occupied West Bank to leave their homes due to attacks and threats by extremist settlers and the Israeli army.
The general supervisor of Al-Baydar Organisation for the Defence of Bedouin Rights, Hassan Malihat, said that the six families had no choice but to leave their homes as a result of a sharp rise in almost daily attacks and violence by both Israeli settler militias and soldiers. He added that a total of 36 individuals from the Kaabneh family had to leave the community which was displaced from their land during the 1948Nakba, "only to face another story of displacement today."
Malihat said that the displacement of the Bedouin community is a bad omen for other Bedouin communities across the occupied West Bank. They are exposed to a higher risk of displacement and ethnic cleansing as a result of settler attacks.
Last May, 37 Palestinian families who lived in the Bedouin community of Ein Samiya, also east of Ramallah, were forced out of their homes in the isolated community as a result of daily violence by Jewish settlers.
READ: Israel court orders 500 Palestinian residents out to build new Israeli neighbourhood
As this is happening, the number of Israeli women who have obtained a licence to carry guns has increased since the beginning of this year by 88 per cent, compared with the same period last year. According to Israeli Army Radio on Sunday, since the latest government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn in, 510 Israeli women have obtained gun licences, compared with 270 during the same period in 2022.
More than 40 per cent of the women live in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. All of Israel's settlements and the Jewish settlers who live in them are illegal under international law.
The increase in gun licences is consistent with the call by extreme far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to arm settlers, simplify the procedure for obtaining a licence to bear arms and shorten the period before it is issued. The context is ongoing incitement to kill Palestinians.
The latest Palestinian to be shot dead by a Jewish settler was Qusay Jamal Matan, who was killed during a settler attack on the town of Burqa, east of Ramallah, on Friday. Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have condemned Ben-Gvir's praise for the settler who killed the young Palestinian.
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