​​​A-Sawiyah, Nablus District: Ambulance driver killed by settler or military fire after settlers attack homes

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On Saturday, 20 April 2024, at around 4:30 P.M., four settlers walked up to a distance of about 150 meters from the northernmost houses in the village of a-Sawiyah and started throwing stones. The residents called for help, and soon about 50 villagers gathered at the scene.

Meanwhile, five soldiers and 10 or 15 more settlers arrived. Some were armed, including the settlement guard, who was carrying a long rifle. The settlers and soldiers began firing live rounds at the villagers from a distance of approximately 100 meters. Two of the villagers were wounded by the gunfire, one in the thigh and chest, and the other in the face. Both were evacuated in an ambulance, but as it began driving, another volley of gunfire struck the vehicle, hitting the driver, Muhammad ‘Awadallah Muhammad Musa, 49, from Qaryut. Musa collapsed, and one of the people accompanying the wounded men moved to the driver’s seat and drove everyone to a nearby medical center in the village of ​​Qabalan. From there, all the wounded were transferred to a hospital in Nablus, where Musa was pronounced dead.

Testimony of Wahid Khalil, 24, from a-Sawiyah:

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On Saturday, 20 April 2024, at around 4:30 P.M., I happened to arrive at a relative’s house in the northern neighborhood of our town, near the Itamar/a-Sawiyah junction. I saw four or five settlers approximately 100 meters from the house. Because they were there, around 50 or 60 villagers gathered in the area, and then about 10 more settlers, five or six soldiers, and a settlement guard armed with a long rifle joined, too.

When the settlers and soldiers reached a distance of 100 or 150 meters from the house, they started shooting live rounds directly at us. They fired a lot of bullets.

One of the young locals was hit in the face. When I saw him bleeding and heard him say ‘I’ve been hit, I’ve been hit,’ I went crazy. I held him and started moving towards the street, shouting for an ambulance. On the street, I was shocked to see that my uncle, Shaker Ahmad Khalil, had also been hit in his chest and left leg.

There was an ambulance from Qaryut there. I got in with the wounded, along with another one of my uncles, Muhammad Khalil, and a young man named Khaled Ahmad. When I got into the ambulance, the driver told me, ‘Don’t worry, your uncle will be fine. Don’t worry.’ The ambulance started driving towards the Al-Siraj Medical Center.

We managed to drive about 50 meters while the paramedic, Bashar al-Qaryuti, treated the wounded inside the ambulance. Suddenly, we heard heavy gunfire, and bullets struck the ambulance’s frame. I heard the driver say, ‘I’ve been hit.’ I asked him, ‘Are you hurt?’ He answered, “It’s nothing serious,” but then the ambulance stopped and the driver’s head slumped onto the steering wheel. One of the escorting passengers, Khaled Ahmad, moved to the steering wheel, moved the driver, and continued heading towards the Al-Siraj Medical Center.

The driver was in a terrible state. He was bleeding heavily. They tried to save him, but he was already dead. Later, I learned that his name was Muhammad ‘Awadallah Musa, and he was from Qaryut.

There was so much blood. It was a horrifying sight. My uncle’s condition also worsened—he became very pale and struggled to breathe. I fainted at the sight of it all. They woke me up and after the wounded were transferred to Nablus, including Musa, who was already dead, I returned to the village.

It was a horrifying incident, and that night, I couldn’t sleep. The next morning, I went to the hospital in Nablus to visit my uncle Shaker, and found out he’d undergone surgery to clean the wound.

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