Israel-Palestine war: Settlers threaten West Bank children with bloody dolls

Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have distributed threatening leaflets on cars and left bloodied dolls at schools, warning Palestinians to leave or be killed.

“By God, we will descend upon your heads with a great catastrophe soon. You have the last chance to escape to Jordan in an organised manner,” said one leaflet circulated on Friday in the West Bank city of Salfit. 

“After that, we will destroy every enemy and forcefully expel you from our holy land … Load your bags immediately and leave wherever you came from. We are coming.”

The leaflet also warned of a new “major Nakba”, referencing the 1948 displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their homeland. 

In the occupied Al-Ma’rajat area near Jericho, dolls covered in red paint, ostensibly to look like blood and scare young students, were left at the entrance of a school after settlers vandalised it.

Before Hamas’s suprise attack on 7 October, settlers harassed and assaulted Palestinians on a daily basis under the protection of the Israeli army, acts that have escalated in the past 20 days. 

In the town of Deir Istiya, west of Salfit, olive farmers have become accustomed to annual attacks during harvest season.

But this year, local journalist Abdel Qader Aql told Middle East Eye that settlers are much more active and seem to be couching their attacks as revenge for Hamas’s assault.  

“This week alone, there were more than 10 attacks on farmers, threats, shouting, intimidation and expulsion of them from their land,” he said.

One farmer was injured after settlers hit his head with a baton. “He fainted, and when he woke up, he found the settlement guard pointing a knife at him,” Aql said.

Olive pickers in the same town were surprised to find leaflets pasted on their car windows saying: “You wanted war, wait for displacement.”

“They also published pictures of families picking olives and incited them for no reason. Because of these threats, the people started heading to their lands in whole groups to protect themselves,” Aql said.

In Al-Ma’rajat area, where settlers attacked the Arab Al-Kaabna School and left the bloodied dolls, human rights defenders say residents in the Bedouin community are repeatedly attacked as settlers aim to displace residents and seize their lands.

Hassan Malihat from the Al-Baidar Organization for Defending Bedouin Rights said that settler groups have repeatedly attacked the community with the aim of displacing its residents and seizing their lands.

On Thursday evening, Malihat told MEE, settlers threw stones at the residents’ homes in this community where 1,200 Palestinians live, and seized their livestock.

“Attacks on the Kaabna Arabs are repeated, and they filed complaints with the Israeli police to no avail,” he said.