Merav is a privatized religious kibbutz on the slopes of the Gilboa Mountains, near the city of Beit Shean. Jalbun is a PA Arab village located 13 km east of Jenin in northern Samaria.
On Friday, for the second time in the month of September, residents of Jalbun fired at residents of Merav without provocation. The first time the fire targeted a group of 18-year-old women and an IDF vehicle. On Friday, with the onset of Shabbat and Sukkot, “There was a massive shooting here,” a Kibbutz member told Haaretz, and pointed at “all the bullet holes on the walls and in the warehouse.” According to him, “The children who were outdoors screamed and there was a commotion here.”
במהלך יום שישי בערב בוצע ירי מהכפר הפלסטיני ג’ילבון לעבר קיבוץ מירב בגלבוע ופגע באחד הבתים.
הבוקר כמה מהתושבים ירדו לכפר הפלסטיני ואחרי 20 דקות ולאחר שהצבא הגיע חזרו בחזרה.
זו הפעם השניה בתוך שבועיים שכמה מהם יורדים לכפר לאחר שבחצי השנה האחרונה ירו לעברם כ-10 פעמים. pic.twitter.com/bROeajAwy4— yishai porat – ישי פורת (@yishaiporat) October 1, 2023
The kibbutz messaged the residents, saying that “the shooting was directed at a private home. Had the owner not thrown himself on the floor, he would have paid with his life. We do not intend to continue to sit idly by and wait for a catastrophe. The writing – and also the bullets – are on the wall, the next victim is only a matter of time.”
דיווחים פלסטיניים: בפעם השנייה תוך שבועיים – קבוצת ישראלים, ככל הנראה מקיבוץ מירב בגלבוע, נכנסה לאדמות הכפר הפלסטיני ג’ילבון בצפון השומרון – לאחר שבערב שבת בוצע פיגוע ירי לעבר בתי הקיבוץ@Doron_Kadosh pic.twitter.com/lUl9Gb8D6z
— גלצ (@GLZRadio) October 1, 2023
And so, on Sunday morning, more than 20 Kibbutz Merav residents crossed the separation fence and entered the neighboring village of Jalbun for the second time in two weeks. They spent all of 20 minutes there and were escorted out by the IDF.
We should point out that on a previous occasion, in Huwara, after two Israeli brothers had been murdered there, the Jewish response was not nearly as peaceful.
