“The soldiers protected the settlers.” Ayman Aktash, Samech’s cousin who was shot to death on the night of the pogrom in Hvara, along with two of the victim’s sons (Photo: Oren Ziv)
IDF soldiers escorted settlers during the fatal shooting in Sameh Aktash in the village of Zaatara near Hawara during the pogrom that settlers carried out there last Sunday. This is according to an analysis of video clips obtained by “Local Conversation”. While the pogrom itself, which occurred after an attack in which two brothers from Mehr Bracha were shot , garnered worldwide attention, Aktesh’s killing received very little mention.
In a video recording the moments of the fatal shooting of Aktesh, 37 years old and father of five, which was taken on Sunday at 20:44, at least three soldiers, at least two military jeeps, and a vehicle flashing blue-red lights, apparently a police car, are seen accompanying a group of about -40 settlers. However, in the videos we don’t see any shots being fired, so it is not clear if the fatal shot came from the soldiers or the settlers who were standing there, or if it came from another source that does not appear in the videos.
The village of Zatara is a small complex of houses on the outskirts of Hvara near the Tufu intersection. Palestinian eyewitnesses told “Tasha Mochim” that settlers attacked them, were smuggled out, and then returned to the place backed by IDF soldiers. “Tasha Mochim” analyzed 14 videos taken from the phones of three people during the fatal shooting incident. The documentation clearly shows that the security forces were present in the arena at least for the quarter of an hour before the shooting, without doing anything to keep the rioters away.
According to the testimonies and the videos, the incident started around seven in the evening, when masked settlers came down to the village from Tufuh Junction, and attacked residents’ houses. At first, residents reacted by throwing stones at the attackers and drove them away. About an hour and a half later, the settlers returned to the village, but this time the security forces backed them up.
“The settlers came twice,” said Abed, Sameh’s older brother, “the first time, alone, and we managed to drive them away, the second time they came back with soldiers and with the Rabbi of one of the settlements. Settlers threw stones at us, they had jerrycans of gasoline, there were about fifty of them. And we, from the area of our house, behind the fence, threw stones at them.” A video taken two minutes before the fatal shooting of his brother, in which dozens of settlers are seen pelting houses in the neighborhood with stones, and in which 11 shots are heard, backs up his words.
In the video recording the moment of the shooting, one of the Palestinian residents is heard saying “Don’t be afraid”, while some of the settlers are holding flashlights and laser pointers, apparently in an attempt to dazzle the residents. Other settlers threw stones. Then two more shots are heard, and one of the residents is heard saying: “It’s in the air.” Five shots are then heard. The residents are heard saying: “They are shooting at us, an ambulance.” This was probably the moment Aktash was hit. At the end of the video, two more shots are heard and another call for help. Throughout the video, no Palestinian residents are seen throwing stones or confronting the settlers or the soldiers. After the shooting, we see A settler measures stones again.
“They started shooting with live fire. They didn’t throw gas, stun, or rubber bullets, immediately live fire,” Abed continued. “Everything was dark. I didn’t see if the person who murdered my brother was a soldier or a settler.” Several dozen settlers and two or three soldiers are seen in the group of attackers. After that, the shot was heard hitting Sameh, without being able to identify who the shooter was.
The doctor said that if he had arrived in time, he might have been saved. Sameh Aktash with two of his children (photo courtesy of the family)
“We were surprised when the settlers attacked us,” said Ayman Aktash, Sameh’s cousin. “Soldiers in the army protected them, as well as guards of the settlements (apparently, Rabbis, 17, 11). The settlers fired live fire at us, and threw stones. The army, instead of turning them back, helped them: they also fired live fire at us . That’s how my cousin, Sameh, was murdered. It happened in front of the people’s eyes, within the confines of our house. The attack happened entirely under the auspices of the army. I don’t know who shot, settlers or soldiers. I was standing right next to him. Everything was dark.”
Sameh was shot in the stomach, according to the doctor who treated him. Eyewitnesses claimed that because the soldiers and settlers blocked the road, he did not receive medical treatment for about 25 minutes. During this time, Sameh was dying, crying out that he needed oxygen. When he finally arrived at the emergency clinic in Hawara, he was lifeless.
“The clinic is a three-four minute (drive) away from us, but the soldiers and settlers blocked the main road,” said his brother Abed, “so I took my brother in a four-by-four vehicle, through the mountain, a bumpy road. In the middle was another roadblock, a pile of dirt that the army placed. So I carried my brother in my arms, to another car, behind the checkpoint.” The residents say that there is an alternative way to get to the clinic in Hawara, but the army closed it. “We are asking for years to be reduced to another path, so that we will not be imprisoned here,” they say.
A military jeep parked near the settlers. From the videos taken by the family members during the shooting at Sameh Aktash of Za’atara
Abed said that during the trip, Sameh “kept talking and saying: ‘I can’t breathe, give me oxygen, oxygen’. In the second vehicle, after the dirt barrier, he suddenly became silent. I think he died then.”
The doctor who received Sameh at the emergency center and pronounced him dead told “Local Talk” that the bullet penetrated his abdominal cavity, “he had massive internal bleeding, the spleen was also damaged, and the main arteries were torn,” he said. According to him, it is possible that if he had arrived earlier at the medical center, his life could have been saved.
Sameh, the youngest of five brothers, lives in Zaatara, a village with single houses and a few businesses, surrounded by a 1.5 meter high fence and an iron gate, which the residents built to protect themselves from settler violence.
“We built the fence to protect our families and children,” Ayman said. “Always when there are tensions, we close the gate, stay within the boundaries of the village and do not leave it.”
In the video footage, local residents are seen close to the fence they erected. According to the documentation, none of them, not even Samech, left the village. There were children and boys there. The marks of the shooting from that night remained on the iron gate and an aluminum wall.
An IDF spokesman said that “the circumstances of the deceased’s death are clearly established.”
In past videos shown by Sameh’s family members to “Local Talk”, he is seen blowing soap bubbles with his children, feeding a small moose from a milk bottle, and volunteering around the world, most recently in Turkey after the earthquake. His brothers said that he loved animals, and that he used to help anyone in need, even in poor countries in Africa and the East, and also in Hawara.
The whole village is shocked. A delegation of the European Union visiting the Aktash family in Zaatra (Photo: Oren Ziv)
“When someone’s car was destroyed, or when a person got stuck in the snow, Sameh was always the first to arrive,” said Ayman, “after the earthquake in Turkey, he collected all the money he could, from his savings, from his brothers, and went. He helped people there. Four days after he returned From there, they murdered him.”
“He came back upset from Turkey,” said his brother Abed, “he told me about women who were crying, to rescue their children from the ruins. He went to the municipality and asked to prepare for an earthquake in Palestine.”
On Friday morning, dozens of diplomats from Europe came for a solidarity visit to the small village. Ayman welcomed them. “We don’t want food or clothes,” he said, “We only ask for one thing: that our children can sleep at night.” Next to him sat his two children and cried. Many of the visitors had difficulty holding back tears. The translator from the European Union also cried.
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Since 1967, the Israeli authorities have not allowed the village to expand, its residents said. This caused many of them to move to Beta, the nearby municipality. “We are not allowed to build houses or even expand the existing houses,” Ayman said, “a playground, built with European funding, was destroyed by the army.”
The small village is engulfed in loss. “Since Samach was killed, the children have not been able to sleep,” Ayman said, “They saw their father, and their uncle, murdered in front of their eyes. They saw how they tried to burn down their house. It put all the children in the village on the market. They hardly sleep, no At night, not during the day. Anything, any noise, they cry.”