Assassination of eldery Sheikh Atef Malik Diriyeh

On December 4, around 11 a.m., about ten Israeli soldiers beat Atef Malik Diriyeh to death at the entrance to the village of Aqraba, south of Nablus. He was working on his land when soldiers invaded his property. He called his son by phone from his vehicle, asking him to join him as soon as possible. His son came with his nephew by jeep, but when they arrived, the soldiers were gone, and they found Sheikh Diriyeh 80 meters away from his vehicle, unconscious. He was taken to the hospital in Nablus, where he was pronounced dead.

According to the municipal chief Salah Jab : “Occupation soldiers badly beat the elderly man as he was on his land near a settlement road in the town (...) He sustained serious injuries and died of his wounds at the hospital”.

Sheikh Atef Malik Diriyeh was a respected 70 years old man, an imam and a memorizer of the Quran.

Legal context :

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice issued a landmark advisory opinion that declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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