Since the start of hostilities in Gaza on October 7, Israeli forces have killed 79 Palestinians, including 20 children, in the West Bank, according to Thursday's United Nations daily report on the situation in the two territories. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that 13 Palestinians (five children) were killed that day alone, most of them in a drone attack on the Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarem An Israeli soldier was killed.
Yesterday, in Bethlehem, three people were wounded by shots fired by uniformed Israelis near the northern entrance to the city during a protest march against the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Twelve people were arrested. Seven others were also wounded by bullets yesterday in Al-Bireh, near Ramallah.
OCHA spokeswoman in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, noted that six Palestinians had been killed in Nablus and Ramallah "at the hands of armed settlers and several Palestinian communities have been forced to leave their lands", corroborating a new escalation in the West Bank. "Also - added Shamdasani - there has been an increase in arbitrary arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and of Arab Israelis in Israel."
Between Thursday night and yesterday morning there were dozens of raids in the occupied territories, while Jewish settlers, with the help of soldiers, kept the main roads of the West Bank blocked and prevented the movement of even ambulances.
According to the Israeli human rights organization B'Tselem, the settlers are taking advantage of the Gaza war to advance in the so-called Area C of the West Bank, which is entirely under the Israeli occupation authorities, unlike Areas A and B, which officially fall under the Palestinian Authority chaired by Mahmud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised in 2019 the annexation of most of Area C (comprising 60% of the West Bank), including the Jordan Valley. The plan had the support of the so-called "Deal of the Century" promoted by Donald Trump.
Specifically, and according to B'Tselem, the events of the last few days indicated that the settlers advanced, unmolested, east of Ramallah, in the Jordan Valley and in the hills south of Hebron, where a thousand Palestinians live wretchedly, practically isolated in a dozen villages attached to an army firing range.
B'Tselem reported on Thursday about settlers sometimes armed and escorted by soldiers "who attack residents, in some cases at gunpoint or shoot them (...), damage property, steal livestock, tear down trees, destroy tanks and conduits of water and solar panels... "In numerous cases, settlers and soldiers together ordered the residents to leave their homes". And, yesterday, dozens of settlers protected by soldiers attacked farmers while they were harvesting olives in Salfit (near the illegal settlement of Ariel) and burned the olive trees, the Palestinian Maan agency reported.
Since October 7, 98 families (552 people) had to flee their homes, according to data from B'Tselem. These days, Israeli forces have arrested more than 900 Palestinians in the West Bank, where Israeli media and the army itself are talking about a possible "third front" (the second would be the north of Israel, where the Lebanese Hizbullah is putting pressure). The army says it is on high alert and preparing for attacks, including those by Hamas militants. Although the presence of the Islamist organization is small in this territory and lacks influence, in a march in Ramallah this week slogans in its favor could be heard.
Gaza and the West Bank, territories separated with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and reunited under occupation in 1967, have lived apart for decades, and even more since the blockade of the strip that began in 2005. Hamas found a foothold in conservative Gaza, but not so much in the West Bank, largely thanks to pressure from Al-Fatah, the Palestinian Authority police and Israeli forces. However, Hamas has claimed to defend the Palestinian cause before anything that happens in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.
