While global attention has been on Israel’s war on Gaza,
tensions in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are boiling.
Since October 7, at least 400 Palestinians have been killed,
including 100 children, and 4,522 Palestinians, including 702 injured by
occupation forces in the occupied West Bank, with more than eight killed in
East Jerusalem, as per the latest statistics by the Palestinian Health
Ministry. Moreover, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians living in the
Occupied West Bank, many in administrative detention, without charges.
Moreover, 830 Palestinians, including 337 children, have been displaced, following
the destruction of 131 homes during operations carried out by IOF across the
West Bank and East Jerusalem.
اضافة اعلان
Many communities have been essentially in lockdown, with roads
and checkpoints closed and freedom of movement restricted. However, most
vulnerable Palestinian communities have been left completely isolated, without
access to the most essential goods and services, living in a constant cycle of
fear and uncertainty.
The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warned recently
that the West Bank is grappling with escalating violence, arrests, and movement
restrictions that impact hunger. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lost
their work permits inside Israel and are now unable to leave the West Bank,
where commercial activity is limited. This puts the economy – and the
humanitarian situation - at risk of further deterioration. The Israeli army
continues its raids across the Occupied West Bank using live fire and tear gas,
and many Palestinians get killed or injured nearly daily.
In its latest report, Amnesty International detailed
“Emblematic cases where Israeli forces used unlawful lethal force.” It added
that four incidents resulted in the unlawful killing of 20 Palestinians,
including seven children.
Since October 7, at least 400 Palestinians have been killed, including 100 children, and 4,522 Palestinians, including 702 injured by occupation forces in the occupied West Bank, with more than eight killed in East Jerusalem, as per the latest statistics by the Palestinian Health Ministry. Moreover, Israel has detained thousands of Palestinians living in the West Bank, many in administrative detention, without charges. Moreover, 830 Palestinians, including 337 children, have been displaced, following the destruction of 131 homes during operations carried out by IOF across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“Under the cover of the relentless bombardment and atrocity
crimes in Gaza, Israeli forces have unleashed unlawful lethal force against
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, carrying out unlawful killings and
displaying a chilling disregard for Palestinian lives,” Erika Guevara-Rosas,
Amnesty International’s director of global Research, advocacy, and policy said.
Adding that Israeli authorities, including the Israeli
judicial system, have shown themselves to be “shamefully unwilling to ensure
justice for Palestinian victims.”
“In this climate of near total impunity, an international
justice system worth its salt must step in,” she said, calling on the
Prosecutor of the ICC to investigate the killings and injuries as “possible war
crimes.”
She added “The situation in Palestine and Israel is a litmus
test for the legitimacy and reputation of the court. It cannot afford to fail
it.” Moreover, settler violence, which was already at record levels in the
occupied West Bank, has been surging strongly daily since October 7, where the
methods employed in these attacks varied, from firing live ammunition to
beatings, uprooting trees, stoning vehicles, blocking roads, and attacking
homes, families, and farmers.
Entire Palestinian communities have been forced from their
lands by this violence and more than 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15
herding communities have been compelled from their homes. Israel has pushed
forward with a plan for the large–scale arming of Israeli–Jewish settlers and
civilian militias inside Israel, inciting settlers to carry out land grabs with
the backing of the Israeli forces. Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar
Ben-Gvir, a far-right settler with a long history of anti-Arab incitement,
responded to the October 7 attack by distributing more weapons to the settler
population and tasking settlers with security.
Besides, a “shoot to kill’’ policy of Palestinians in the
occupied West Bank was recently carried out mostly by Israeli extremist armed
settlers who reside illegally in the occupied West Bank and act with immunity
and mostly under the protection of the Israeli forces. On the other hand,
although consecutive Israeli governments have expanded settlements in the
occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank territories in the past years,
construction has accelerated rapidly under Netanyahu’s current right-wing government.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been pushing the planning
authorities to approve the construction of 7,000 housing units in West Bank
settlements and in response to the Palestinian shooting attack that killed one
Israeli and wounded five recently, Smotrich announced a new plan to build more
than 3,300 new homes in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
“Instead of acting to prevent future horrible attacks such
as of ‘yesterday,”’ the government of Israel is acting to deepen the conflict
and the tensions,” said Hagit Ofran, from the Israeli settlement watchdog group
Peace Now.
“The construction in
settlements is bad for Israel, distancing us from peace and security,” she
added. The efforts of the right-wing finance minister who was also given
authority over civilian matters in the occupied West Bank, come amid
geopolitical turbulence and as the Biden administration and other Palestinian
and Israeli allies have called for a future Palestinian State to end the
years-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Former Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud
Olmert, wrote in the Israeli daily, Haaretz, that “the supreme aim of the duo
National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Finance Minister, Bezalel
Smotrich, is not the Occupation of the Gaza Strip.”
Entire Palestinian communities have been forced from their lands by this violence and more than 1,000 Palestinians from at least 15 herding communities have been compelled from their homes. Israel has pushed forward with a plan for the large–scale arming of Israeli–Jewish settlers and civilian militias inside Israel, inciting settlers to carry out land grabs with the backing of the Israeli forces.
“Gaza is just the introductory chapter; the platform this
gang wants to build as the foundation upon which the real fight they are eyeing
will be conducted: the battle for the West Bank and the Temple Mount,” he said,
referring to the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, using its name in
Judaism. Olmert argued that “the ultimate aim of this gang is ‘purging’ the
West Bank of its Palestinian inhabitants, cleansing the Temple Mount of its
Muslim worshippers.” He warned that “the way to achieve this goal is
blood-soaked. Israeli blood, in the state and the Territories, it has been
controlling for 57 years now, as well as Jewish blood in places elsewhere in
the world.”
“As well as a lot of Palestinian blood, of course, in the
Territories, in Jerusalem, and if there is no alternative – also among Arab
citizens of Israel,” he added. Under international law, all Jewish settlements
in the occupied territories are considered illegal and the United Nations have
been calling for years in vain for its cessation, warning that it undermines
the chances of addressing the Palestinian-Israeli conflict by the principle of
a two-state solution.
On its part and over the past decades, Israel has been
persistently pursuing annexation in most parts of the occupied Palestinian
territories, confiscating or endorsing confiscation of Palestinian lands and
resources, resulting in over 300 settlements housing more than 750,000 Israeli
settlers.
Today, the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians
in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza, is a clear challenge and violation
of all resolutions of international legitimacy and international law. Israel’s
genocide and fast rate of civilian killing are leading the entire region to a
dangerous situation with unpredictable consequences and the tragedy continues
to unfold for the Palestinians who are trapped in a maze of unlawfulness and
injustice.
The international community’s failure till date to pressure
Israel to implement and comply with international law and the relevant
international legitimacy resolutions encouraged it to deepen settlement
activity and sabotage international efforts to end the occupation and achieve
peace and security. The spiral of violence will continue unless the importance
of international law as a foundation of peace and security is restored. Justice
must be served, and international law must be upheld without double standards
to end this cycle of violence and secure a just and lasting peace.
Najla M. Shahwan is a Palestinian
author, researcher, and freelance journalist who has published 13 books and a
series of children’s stories. She is the recipient of two prizes from the
Palestinian Union of Writers.
Disclaimer:
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