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'Wow': Observers Surprised After Dem Moderate Rejects AIPAC Cash
"AIPAC's brand is increasingly, perhaps irredeemably toxic," wrote one observer.
Oct 16, 2025
A centrist Democratic lawmaker on Thursday surprised many political observers when he announced he would be returning donations he'd received from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), who is running a primary challenge against Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), said that he was rejecting donations from AIPAC because it had aligned itself too closely with the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who last year was accused of committing crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court.
"I'm a friend of Israel, but not of its current government, and AIPAC's mission is to back that government," Moulton said in a social media post. "I don't support that direction."
As flagged by New York Times reporter Annie Karni, Moulton is now the fourth Democratic lawmaker who once received heavy support from AIPAC to reject their donations, following Reps. Morgan McGarvey (D-Ky.), Deborah Ross (D-NC), and Valerie Foushee (D-NC).
Hamid Bendaas, communications director for the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project, observed in a post on X that Moulton appeared to be ignoring advice given by a prominent Democratic consultant over the summer to not focus on the Israel-Palestine conflict because polls showed it wasn't important to voters.
Dylan Williams, the vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, argued that Moulton's rejection of AIPAC cash showed how far the organization's reputation with the electorate has fallen over the past several years.
"AIPAC is now so toxic to Democratic voters that support from it is widely seen as a political liability," he wrote. "The NRA-ization of AIPAC is nearly complete."
Ishaan Tharoor, a Washington Post global affairs columnist, also reflected on how much AIPAC's brand has been damaged over the last two years of war in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 68,000 Palestinians.
"There was a time when people would refer to AIPAC as the gold standard in lobbying," he wrote. "So many in India and the Indian diaspora have talked about a future 'Indian AIPAC' one day influencing US politics in similar fashion. But AIPAC's brand is increasingly, perhaps irredeemably toxic."
Journalist Ryan Grim had a one-word reaction to Moulton's rejection of AIPAC cash: "Wow."
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With 60,000+ Dead, US Public Support for Israel's Annihilation of Gaza Hits New Low
Just 32% of respondents—including only 8% of Democrats—said they backed Israel in a new Gallup poll.
Jul 29, 2025
As the Palestinian death toll from Israel's obliteration of Gaza officially topped 60,000—likely a significant undercount—a Gallup poll released Tuesday revealed that U.S. public support for Israel's war on the Palestinian enclave plummeted to an all-time low, even before the widespread publication of horrifying images of Gazan children dying of starvation.
According to the Gallup survey of 1,002 U.S. adults conducted between July 7-21, 32% of overall respondents said they approve of Israel's war on Gaza launched in response to the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack. That's down from 42% in September 2024 and 50% in October 2023.
Conversely, 60% of overall respondents now disapprove of Israel's war, which is the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case filed by South Africa. That's up from 48% disapproval last September and 45% in October 2023.
Those polled were sharply divided along partisan lines. Republican respondents were the only group whose support for Israel's war increased, with 71% approving in the new poll, up from 66% in September 2024 and matching the 71% approval rating in October 2023.f
Among Independents, only 25% said they approved of the war, down from 41% in September 2024 and 47% in October 2023.
Democratic approval of Israel's war dipped into the single digits for the first time, with just 8% supporting the action. That's a precipitous plunge from Democrats' 24% approval in September 2024 and 36% in October 2023.
For the first time in Gallup's survey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's overall approval among Americans dipped into negative territory, with 52% of respondents viewing him unfavorably. Just 29% of respondents said they had a favorable view of Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza including murder and forced starvation.
The new Gallup poll was published on the same day that the Gaza Health Ministry said the death toll in the Palestinian enclave topped 60,000 amid relentless Israeli bombing, daily attacks on aid-seekers, and a worsening starvation crisis. Most of those killed have been women and children. The ministry said at least 147 Palestinians—88 of them children—have died of severe malnutrition since October 2023.
At least 145,870 Palestinians have also been wounded, and approximately 14,000 others are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.
Multiple peer-reviewed studies in the esteemed British medical journal The Lancet have concluded that Gaza Health Ministry casualty figures are likely a vast undercount.
A separate poll of New York City Democratic primary voters published Tuesday by Data for Progress and the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project for Semafor found that 78% believe Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, 79% want the U.S. to restrict arms transfers to Israel, and 63% say that the next mayor of New York City should enforce the ICC warrant for Netanyahu's arrest.
The poll revealed that a +42-point net favorability rating for New York City Democratic mayoral nominee and Palestine defender Zohran Mamdani, -12-point net favorability for Independent challenger Andrew Cuomo, and -62-point net favorability for Eric Adams, who is also running independently.
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'Hope He Smirks in Hell': Biden Spox Matt Miller Panned for Finally Acknowledging Israeli War Crimes
"The most cynical aspect of it all is that he is deluded enough to believe that now admitting what he knew all along makes him look principled," said one critic.
Jun 03, 2025
Matthew Miller—the former U.S. State Department spokesperson who smirked and lied his way through the Biden administration's support for Israel's annihilation of Gaza—now acknowledges that Israel has committed war crimes, but for many critics his admission is "too little, too late," as one critic said Tuesday.
Asked Monday by Sky News "Trump 100" podcast host Mark Stone whether Israel is committing genocide in Gaza—as alleged by a growing number of experts and in an ongoing International Court of Justice case—Miller said: "I don't think it's a genocide, but I think it is without a doubt true that Israel has committed war crimes."
"'Just following orders' alibi lost its efficacy after 1945."
When Stone said that "you wouldn't have said that at the podium" during his Biden administration tenure, Miller replied: "When you're at the podium, you're not expressing your personal opinion. You're expressing the conclusions of the United States government."
Numerous online critics blasted Miller's " just following orders" reply, with some noting that a number of State Department officials resigned in opposition to the Biden administration's support for Israel.
"Miller is a war criminal," Indian author and scholar Sunny Singh said, pointing to the legal principle established during the post-World War II Nuremberg Trials of Nazi officials stating that "the fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."
Another academic, Oxford University professor and lawyer Alonso Gurmendi Dunkelberg, said that "Miller is a despicable person who willingly accepted to be the face of a genocide to provide cover for one of the most horrific mass atrocities of this century and is now trying to escape a sinking ship. He is irredeemable."
The Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project said on social media: "For months on end, in his position as State Department spokesperson, Matthew Miller lied through his teeth by denying Israel's war crimes and crimes against humanity against Palestinians in Gaza. Too little, too late, Matt, to finally admit it."
Entrepreneur-turned-commentator Arnaud Bertrand called Miller the "lowest of the low" in a lengthy social media post.
"Miller was quite literally the face of the U.S. covering for Israel, denying their war crimes on the podium day in and day out, all with his characteristic smirk," Bertrand said. "And NOW, after tens of thousands of women and children were massacred, he says he actually knew full well he was lying to the public, but that he was just doing his job and following orders."
"And the most cynical aspect of it all is that he is deluded enough to believe that now admitting what he knew all along makes him look principled," Bertrand added. "We're seeing more and more cases like his as the scale of the horrors that happened—and are still happening—in Gaza is becoming more and more impossible to deny. They're nothing more than opportunists trying to salvage their reputations on the graves of those they helped kill."
Miller's acknowledgment of Israeli war crimes marks a stark departure from what he typically said during many of his press briefings, when he repeatedly said that the Biden administration determined Israel was not breaking international law. Israel's conduct in the war prompted the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged extermination and weaponized starvation—
Even as the Biden administration received hundreds of reports that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were using U.S.-supplied weapons to kill and maim thousands of Palestinian civilians, Miller kept pushing the false narrative that Israel was not committing war crimes, despite internal department findings and outside expert assessments.
Miller went even further, accusing United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese of antisemitism in a bid to discredit her criticism of Israel and its U.S. and Western enablers, whom she called the "axis of genocide."
During one contentious exchange with journalist Sam Husseini, Miller acknowledged what many experts including in the Biden administration had warned: that the actual death toll in Gaza "could very well be more" than the roughly 38,000 Palestinians that the Gaza Health Ministry reported at the time. Asked by Husseini about a peer-reviewed study in the prestigious U.K. medical journal The Lancet estimating up to 186,000 indirect deaths in Gaza, Miller stumbled through his attempt at a response.
"You're smirking as you say that," Husseini said, giving birth to the "Count Smirkula" meme that dogged Miller for the rest of his tenure.
"Count Smirkula, Ma[t]thew Miller, stood on the podium day in and day out, denying Israel's war crimes," Palestinian engineer and researcher Bashar Zapen noted on social media. "The U.S. knew. Biden knew. Miller knew. He smirked every time he lied. Hope he smirks in hell."
During a press meeting on Tuesday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US is aware that the death toll in Gaza “could very well be more” than what has been reported. pic.twitter.com/Gqs4Mim9it
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) July 10, 2024
Miller also said during the Sky News interview that there were "debates" about whether to suspend arms transfers to Israel, "and you saw at times us hold back certain arms while we negotiated the use of those arms."
However, at the time Miller denied that the Biden administration was considering any suspension of the billions of dollars in U.S. armed aid to Israel, which included bombs used in some of the deadliest IDF massacres in Gaza, such as the October 31, 2023 bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp with 2,000-pound bombs in which at least 126 civilians were killed in a bid to assassinate a single Hamas commander.
The Biden administration knew that the IDF had lifted all curbs on civilian harm following the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack, explicitly allowing the killing of an unlimited number of civilians in order to eliminate any Hamas member, no matter how low-ranking. Faced with growing congressional opposition to sending arms to Israel, the Biden administration repeatedly bypassed Congress to keep the armaments flowing.
The staggering Gaza death toll eventually prompted the Biden administration to temporarily suspend shipment of some arms including 2,000-pound bombs. But the shipments soon resumed and the death toll in Gaza—which now reportedly stands at more than 54,500 after nearly 20 months of Israel's onslaught and starvation-inducing siege—continued to rise.
Journalists—hundreds of whom have been killed or maimed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since October 2023—were particularly dismissive of Miller's acknowledgment.
"Zero respect for Matthew Miller,"
Washington Post opinion columnist Rana Ayyub wrote on the social media site X. "Day after day, he defended war crimes, gaslit the suffering of Gazans, and helped shape public opinion to justify atrocities—including the killing of journalists."
Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed
said on the same site that "we will also never forgive and forget you, and you will always be remembered as the smirker of the Gaza Genocide."
"You also must be held accountable," he added.
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'Every Single Senator Should Be Supporting' Sanders Bid to Block Massive New Arms Sale to Israel
Sen. Bernie Sanders said he would introduce a joint resolution to block the proposed sale of $18 billion worth of warplanes and other weaponry to Israel.
Jul 12, 2024
As the Biden administration pushes Congress to approve an additional $18 billion arms sale to Israel even as it wages what much of the international community considers a genocidal war against the people of Gaza, Palestine defenders on Friday urged U.S. senators to support an effort by Sen. Bernie Sanders to block weapons transfers to the key Middle Eastern ally.
The Biden administration is urging congressional lawmakers to sign off on the sale of a package involving as many as 50 McDonnell Douglas F-15 fighters, as well as munitions, training, and other support, to Israel. The sale cleared a key hurdle last month when two holdouts—Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking Democratic member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), the top Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrat—agreed to support the transfer.
If given final approval, the sale would be one of the largest to Israel since it began its nine-month assault on Gaza in retaliation for the Hamas-led October 7 attacks. More than 137,500 Palestinians have been killed, maimed, or left missing by Israel's onslaught, which is the subject of both an International Court of Justice genocide case and International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan's bid to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders, including Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas Chief Yahya Sinwar.
The Biden administration has approved billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and more than 100 arms sales to Israel since October. This, atop the nearly $4 billion Israel already got from Washington annually.
"While much of the media is focused on the drama of the U.S. presidential election, we must not lose sight of what is happening in Gaza, where an unprecedented humanitarian crisis continues to get even worse," Sanders said Friday.
"Nine months into this war, more than 38,000 people have been killed and 88,000 injured—60% of whom are women, children, or elderly. The full toll is likely higher, with thousands more buried beneath the rubble," he continued. "Nine in 10 Gazans—1.9 million people—have been driven from their homes."
"Many people have been displaced four or five times, and most do not have homes to return to, with more than 60% of residential buildings damaged or destroyed," he added.
"Israel continues to restrict the entry of [United Nations] humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, prevent the entry of key humanitarian items, and obstruct aid workers' access to many areas," the senator noted. "These restrictions have prevented aid organizations from setting up a sustained, effective response."
Sanders stressed:
Yet, in the midst of this horror and violations of international law, the United States continues to send billions of dollars and thousands of bombs and other weapons to support this war. We, as Americans, are complicit.
We must end our support for Netanyahu's war. Not another nickel to make this horrific situation even worse. I intend to do everything I can to block further arms transfers to Israel, including through joint resolutions of disapproval of any arms sales. The United States must not help a right-wing extremist and war criminal continue this atrocity.
Palestine defenders backed Sanders' effort.
"Every single senator should be supporting Sen. Sanders upcoming joint resolution of disapproval against an $18 billion weapons giveaway to Israel, which would further enmesh and implicate the U.S. in Israel's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," Institute for Middle East Understanding policy director Josh Ruebner said on social media.
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Critics Warn Biden's Embrace of Israeli Cease-Fire Plan 'Will Likely Fall Flat'
"You cannot call for peace while sending bombs that burn children sleeping in tents," said one group. "Enough. Stop the weapons."
May 31, 2024
Palestine defenders welcomed Israel's roadmap for a Gaza cease-fire—which U.S. President Joe Biden endorsed on Friday—as a necessary first step but warned that the plan does not address the root causes of the war and demanded that the United States stop sending military aid to the key Middle Eastern ally.
"It's time for this war to end, for the day after to begin," Biden told reporters in the White House State Dining Room on Friday, adding that "at this point, Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7."
In a three-part plan that Biden called "a road map to an enduring cease-fire," Israel has proposed an initial six-week truce during which Israeli military forces would withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza, while Hamas would release an unspecified number of hostages. Phase two of the plan would see a permanent cessation of hostilities, followed by a blueprint for the reconstruction of the obliterated Gaza Strip.
Israel
rejected a similar Hamas cease-fire proposal earlier this month. Israel's plan has been sent to Hamas—whose political wing rules Gaza—for consideration.
"This is truly a decisive moment. Israel has made their proposal. Hamas says it wants a cease-fire," said Biden. "This deal is an opportunity to prove whether they really mean it."
The Uncommitted National Movement—which urges Americans to vote "uncommitted" to protest Biden's support for Israel's war on Gaza— called the president's embrace of a cease-fire proposal "a welcome development," but added that the move "will likely fall flat" as long as he keeps sending military aid and weapons that enable Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's war crimes.
Earlier this month, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan said he is seeking arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as three leaders of Hamas for alleged war crimes including extermination.
Israel—whose forces have killed, maimed, or left missing nearly 130,000 Palestinians in Gaza—is also the subject of an International Court of Justice genocidecase brought by South Africa and backed by more than 30 countries and regional blocs.
"President Biden has had all the leverage to end Israel's genocide in Gaza from day one. At every turn, he has sent more and more weapons to Israel," the Institute for Middle East Understanding Policy Project
said Friday on social media.
"Seventeen billion dollars," the group added. "You cannot call for peace while sending bombs that burn children sleeping in tents. Enough. Stop the weapons."
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Biden 'Moving the Goal Post' With Threat to Withhold Bombs From Israel
"Now Israel has a green light to destroy Rafah in slow motion," said one critic.
May 08, 2024
While some Palestine defenders on Wednesday welcomed U.S. President Joe Biden's threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it launches a major invasion of Rafah, critics noted that an invasion is already underway and accused the American leader of walking back a previous "red line" warning against an Israeli assault on the southern Gaza city.
Biden said for the first time that he'll stop sending bombs, artillery shells, and other arms to Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of Rafah, where more than a million Palestinians forcibly displaced from other parts of the embattled Gaza Strip are sheltering alongside around 280,000 local residents.
Referring to Israel's use of U.S.-supplied 2,000-pound bombs—which can destroy an entire city block and have been used in some of the war's worst atrocities—Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett that "civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers."
Even the U.S. military—which has killed more foreign civilians than any other armed force on the planet since the end of World War II—won't use 2,000-pound bombs in urban areas. But Israel does, including when it launched a strike to assassinate a single Hamas commander by dropping the munitions on the Jabalia refugee camp last October, killing more than 120 civilians.
"If they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities," Biden said Wednesday.
Israeli forces have already gone into Rafah, and it was reported Tuesday that Biden was taking the unusual step of delaying shipments of two types of Boeing-made bombs to Israel to send a message to the country's far-right government. It was, however, a mixed message, as the president also earlier in the day reaffirmed his support for Israel's war on Gaza. In January, the International Criminal Court ruled that a genocide case against Israel by South Africa was plausibly brought and ordered Israel to "take all measures within its power" to uphold its obligations under Article II of the Genocide Convention.
Critics noted the shifting and subjective language used by Biden—who previously said that any Israeli invasion of Rafah would constitute a "red line" resulting in unspecified consequences.
"He said invading Rafah was a red line. Israel invaded Rafah anyway, bombing buildings, burning and crushing children to death," political analyst Omar Baddar said on social media. "Biden is now moving the goal post by adding a completely subjective descriptor: 'Major.' Now Israel has a green light to destroy Rafah in slow motion."
During the course of the seven-month Israeli assault on Gaza—which has killed, maimed, or left missing more than 124,000 Palestinians—Biden has said Israel has killed "too many civilians" with its "indiscriminate bombing," even as he's pushed for more and more military aid for the key ally.
Wednesday's interview came on the heels of Biden's approval of a $14.3 billion emergency military aid package to Israel, multiple moves to sidestep Congress to fast-track armed assistance, nearly $4 billion in previously authorized annual military aid, and diplomatic cover in the form of several United Nations Security Council vetoes.
Reporting that the Biden administration will delay a highly anticipated report on whether Israel is using U.S. military aid in compliance with international law also drew backlash Tuesday from human rights advocates.
Referring to Israel's U.S.-funded anti-missile system, Biden continued his supportive rhetoric during Wednesday's CNN interview, telling Burnett that "we're going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks."
But the president added that Israel's use of devastating weaponry against civilians is "just wrong," and that "we're not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells."
Some peace groups welcomed Biden's threat to withhold bombs and artillery shells from Israel, even while urging him to do more to stop his ally's genocidal onslaught.
"Biden's statement is as necessary as it is over overdue," Jewish Voice for Peace executive director Stefanie Fox said in a statement. "The U.S. already bears responsibility for months of catastrophic devastation: The nearly 40,000 Palestinians that the Israeli military has killed, the two million Palestinians being intentionally brought to the brink of famine, the decimation of all universities and almost every hospital in Gaza."
"Today's statement shows that Biden can no longer ignore the will of the majority of Americans who want a permanent cease-fire, release of all hostages, and an end to U.S. complicity in Israeli war crimes," Fox added.
Correction: This article has been updated to clarify the International Justice Court's findings on the genocide case brought against Israel.
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With All Eyes on Gaza, Israeli Soldiers and Settlers Kill Dozens of West Bank Palestinians
"Many Israeli settlers have openly called for Palestinians to be wiped off the map," said one advocacy group. "Now, Israel is giving them the guns to achieve that vision."
Oct 13, 2023
While the world watches Israel's military pulverize Gaza amid anticipation of an imminent ground invasion of the besieged strip, Israeli soldiers and settlers—who are receiving thousands of assault rifles from the government—have killed dozens of Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem over the past week, officials there said on Friday.
At around 5:00 pm local time, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that 11 people were killed by Israeli occupation forces and settler-colonists in the West Bank and East Jerusalem so far on Friday, raising the death toll there to 46 and the number of wounded to over 700 since Hamas and other Gaza-based militants launched a massive cross-border attack on southern Israel last weekend, killing more than 1,300 Israeli soldiers and civilians.
"Amidst the war and horrors in the south, away from the public eye, Israeli soldiers and settlers are engaging in deadly violence against Palestinians in the West Bank."
In response, Israeli forces bombarded Gaza by air, land, and sea, killing at least 1,799 Palestinians—including at least 583 children—wounding at least 7,388 more, displacing hundreds of thousands, and cutting off water and power to the besieged strip's 2.3 million residents.
"Amidst the war and horrors in the south, away from the public eye, Israeli soldiers and settlers are engaging in deadly violence against Palestinians in the West Bank," the Israeli human rights group Yesh Din noted earlier this week. "The attacks are taking place within the villages themselves, on the roads, and in agricultural lands."
"Israeli settlers are shooting, injuring, setting fires, and damaging property and trees," the group added. "There is evidence that soldiers are allowing the violence to continue, sometimes joining in."
Some critics accused the Israeli government—and especially far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir—of enabling settler attacks by handing out thousands of military assault rifles to settlement residents.
"As it drops bomb after bomb on Palestinians in Gaza, Israel is giving 1000s of machine guns to extremist Israelis, including settlers in the Palestinian West Bank. There have already been reports of Israeli settlers using the weapons to attack every Palestinian they see," the California-based Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) said on social media Thursday.
"The extremist settlers Israel is arming have spent years attacking Palestinian cities in lynch mobs, with full backing from the Israeli government," IMEU continued. "This year alone, they have killed Palestinian civilians and set fire to cars and homes with families inside."
"Many Israeli settlers have openly called for Palestinians to be wiped off the map. Now, Israel is giving them the guns to achieve that vision," the group added. "Israel is setting the stage for a genocide of Palestinians."
On Friday, Israeli settlers and soldiers attacked Palestinians protesting the assault on Gaza in the West Bank town of Tulkarem, killing three people, according to Agence France-Presse. Another Palestinian, a 13-year-old boy, was reportedly shot dead in Beit Furik, near Nablus.
Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reported that Israeli police on Friday shot and killed four Palestinians who allegedly detonated explosive devices in what the paper called an apparent attempt to breach the Israeli separation wall near Tulkarem.
Also on Friday, the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem published a video showing an Israeli settler ambushing and shooting an unarmed Palestinian man in the abdomen with an assault rifle at point-blank range near the West Bank village of At-Tuwani, south of Hebron. An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier seen standing nearby does not intervene. Instead, he escorts the shooter and another person away from the scene.
The Times of Israel reported the victim was severely injured, and that Israeli police know the identity of the shooter—a resident of a nearby illegal settlement—and will question him. However, as the newspaper noted, "assailants are rarely arrested, let alone prosecuted for their actions."
On Wednesday, a group of masked gunmen from the illegal Esh Kodesh settler outpost attacked the West Bank village of Qusra, south of Nablus. The attackers stormed the village in all-terrain vehicles, shooting indiscriminately and killing four Palestinians while wounding 11 others, including a 6-year-old girl. The settlers torched homes and other structures before fleeing.
The following day, Israeli settlers and troops opened fire on mourners and an ambulance carrying the victims of Wednesday's attack in Qusra, fatally wounding Ibrahim Wadi, 63, and his son, Ahmad Wadi, 26.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Thursday reported 49 settler attacks on West Bank and East Jerusalem Palestinians since October 7, including some in which IDF troops took part.
OCHA also said that 214 people from 35 Palestinian families from the Wadi as Seeq and Al Mu'arajat Bedouin communities fled their homes amid "systematic harassment and attacks by Israeli settlers," raising concerns of possible ethnic cleansing.
Additionally, the World Health Organization has documented 28 attacks on West Bank healthcare infrastructure or workers since October 7, including 20 assaults on medical professionals.
On Thursday, the Palestine-based International Middle East Media Center reported Israeli occupation forces "stormed and ransacked dozens of homes across the West Bank" while abducting 42 Palestinians, many of them former political prisoners and at least one journalist.
Attacks by Israeli settlers and soldiers on West Bank Palestinians are nothing new. Prior to last weekend's attacks on Israel, at least 120 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank this year alone. There have been multiple deadly settler rampages this year that have been described by Israeli officials, rights groups, and others as "pogroms."
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