October 26, 2024 | Tulkarem-West Bank | Diana Khwaelid
What does it mean to bring an entire army battalion with huge military vehicles storming into a neighborhood, to besiege a whole apartment building, in search of a single Palestinian? This is a report of resilience and defiance in the face of the Israeli occupation.
The Building that was surrounded and destroyed by Israeli forces.
On October 26 at 3:20 a.m. the Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Tulkarem, north of the Western apartment. This time, forces were stationed in Al-Salam Lane, a neighborhood located between the Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps.
Israeli military vehicles during the storming.
Israeli special forces known as Al-Yamamah were accompanied by three wheeled bulldozers and Israeli heavy military vehicles of type D9, D10. These forces, accompanied by soldiers, besieged a residential building in the Al-Salam neighborhood for 10 hours continuously, after receiving security intelligence about the presence of a Palestinian inside one of the residential apartments in building. Three Palestinian families, most of them women and children, were living inside the building.
The Palestinians who were living inside the building felt a state of fear and panic, especially the women and children. One of the residents of the building said, “My children are still under the influence of fear and shock even after the withdrawal of the army and the end of the Israeli military operation.”
One of the Residents of the targeted building.
The Israeli occupation operation focused on besieging the building, bulldozing the main entrance to the building, and evacuating the Palestinian families who were living inside, so that the building could be surrounded from all sides, with the addition of aircraft from above.
During the strike of Energa-type shells on the building which led to its burning.
The five-floor building was subjected to partial and total destruction throughout, and all this to kill the 29-year-old Palestinian Islam Odeh, from the Tulkarem camp. The Israeli occupation forces proceeded with a march onto the floor where he was located, and launched Energa-type missiles to murder him, but he kept fighting until the last moment and never gave up; he succumbed to an Israeli bullet in the end. That final bullet hit Islam Odeh directly in the head, and he fell as a martyr.
The shoes of the martyr, Islam, found in the location of his murder.
According to the Palestinian Civil Administration, the Israeli occupation forces killed the young Palestinian Islam, and have retained his body.
A Palestinian firefighter tries to put out the fire started by Israeli forces.
Palestinian medical and Civil Defense crews rushed to the site of the building immediately after the end of the military operation and the withdrawal of Israeli forces, in order to secure the building and dispose of any remnants of explosives and Israeli military equipment.
A Palestinian tries to clear the destruction from inside the building.
This operation imposed heavy material losses for the owner of the building, and heavy losses as well for the owners of cars destroyed by the occupation while at the entrance to the building, cars which belonged to the residents of the building.
There was a difficult psychological impact on the family of the Palestinian martyr Islam Odeh after receiving the news of their son’s elevation.
Father of the martyred Islam Odeh grieves.
There was also a profound psychological impact on the family of the martyr, Islam Odeh, after learning of their son’s death.
According to the Shirin Abu Aqla Observatory in Tulkarm alone, the number of martyrs since the beginning of 2024 has reached 173 so far.
This report was generated by the Commission Against the Wall and Settlements, and was translated from Arabic to English for ISM. That translation is reproduced here with only minor formatting alterations.
Agricultural Outposts: A Gateway towards Forced Displacement
It is not possible to create a functional separation between the case of establishing colonial outposts, which witnessed a rise in their creation process after 2015, and the case of forced displacement taking place these days, which reached its peak shortly after the aggression began on October 7th, 2023. The state of emergency and the declaration of war served as a cover for the behavior of colonizers’ militias whose original aim was to create this type of displacement. This is a form of a functional exchange of roles between the official institutes affiliated with the occupation and these militias.
Data from the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CWRC) point to the existence of 96 active colonial outposts taking on the forms of pastoral and agricultural outposts out of a total of 196 diverse colonial outposts (updated data/Commission). These outposts prevent Palestinian citizens from “using/accessing” more than 410,000 dunums of privately owned citizens’ lands in various areas in the West Bank, mostly concentrated in the eastern slopes and the Jordan Valley. This is done without official military orders and without declared procedures, merely under the control of terrorism, domination, and official military protection.
The attached map shows how the positioning of the outposts, that were built purposefully alongside Bedouin communities, led to the forced displacement of these communities because of the behavior of armed extremist colonizers and their aggressive implementation of these evacuation plans. This was achieved by depriving these communities from grazing areas and water resources, in addition to instilling fear in the hearts of the elderly, women, and children, compelling them to leave. Data from the commission, alongside other human rights organizations, indicates that more than 27 Bedouin communities of various sizes were forcibly displaced in the year 2023 due to the terrorism emanating from these outposts.
This approach (colonial outposts vs forced displacement) is based on one of the main plans of the settler colonial project’s trajectories following the occupation in 1967, which was revealed in the same year and was attributed to the acting Prime Minister and Minister in the third occupation government, Yigal Allon. He gave a proposition to empty the eastern slopes of the West Bank, annex the city of Jerusalem, and gain control over Palestinian natural resources (see the side map).
By following the occupation’s colonial behavior through the past decades, one can come to the conclusion that the occupation state did not deter, not for one minute, from implementing this particular plan, in addition to several other prominent plans, notably, Matityahu Drobles Plan of 1978 (former head of the colonial division). Drobles proposed annexing the eastern slopes, and reinforcing colonial blocs, which has remained steadfast and is being rapidly implemented. The implementation process began by isolating the Jordan Valley and evacuating it, and continued by instilling colonizers in pastoral and agricultural outposts, and culminated in the imposition of terrorism to accomplish the displacement process.
The CWRC data point out that 71% of these outposts were created after 2015. The Commission monitors that 78% of these outposts were established in the eastern part of the West Bank, starting from the northern part of the Jordan Valley, passing through the eastern part of Ramallah and Jerusalem, and ending in the southern part of the Hebron Governorate in the south, or in areas overlooking these regions, such as the eastern part of Nablus Governorate, forming a corridor in the operational sense of control.
Looking at the issue from the outside, it seems that these invented colonial stages, and in every stage, are separate from each other completely. This supports the occupation’s claim that there are security reasons and requirements for all these procedures. However, in truth, while reviewing this project in its cumulative dimension, and in a way that leaves no room for doubt, that there is a strong bond between these stages that goes way back to ancient origins and ideologies that were adopted since the beginning of the occupation. This connection does not relinquish control as a concept and does not loosen its grip on the land and its people as a practical on-the-ground measure.
Even though the settler-colonial project on Palestine has a long, ancient, and continuous history, on the other hand, the Palestinian legal and popular national struggle is no less rooted, authentic, and varied. It emanates from the concept of the inherent right and the struggle protected by all laws of the land and sky, preserved by the Palestinian people with unwavering determination.
A map showing the distribution of Bedouin communities that have been deported since the beginning of 2023
Colonial Terrorism and Forced Displacement
In this part of the report, we document the forced displacement processes caused by the coercive and hostile environmental measures imposed by the occupation state’s direct measures and through the terrorism of colonizers’ militias imposed on Palestinian citizens in these areas.
The Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, since the beginning of 2023, especially after the aggression on our people started after the 7th of October, monitored an escalation of the assaults and threats of armed colonizers, in what can be described as an audacious exploitation of the aggression waged on the Gaza Strip, taking advantage of the fact the media focus is on Gaza, and its absence from the West Bank and Jerusalem to some extent. Most importantly, there is an exploitation of the emergency and war laws imposed by the occupying state, which protect the criminals among the colonizers from accountability and punishment, particularly in the issues of forced displacement and the imposition of a coercive and hostile environment.
Even though all international laws and regulations prohibit and criminalize forced displacement, as stated in the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, Article 49, which declares: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Similarly, Article 53, “Any destruction by the Occupying Power of real or personal property belonging individually or collectively to private persons, or to the State, or to other public authorities, or to social or co-operative organizations, is prohibited, except where such destruction is rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.” And Article 147, which declares, “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.” (Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, 1949).
Judicial precedents from the International Criminal Court and other international criminal tribunals affirm that forced displacement is not limited to direct physical displacement but also encompasses actions and threats involving the use of force and coercion. It also includes creating a hostile environment, such as detention, violence, demolition, and other measures that forcibly drive individuals to leave their place of residence or to be displaced.
The Israeli occupation authorities, in the process of forced displacement of Palestinian Bedouin communities, focus on three main areas: the Palestinian Jordan Valley, the eastern region of Ramallah, and the southern part of Hebron. This is evident in the data on the positioning of the displaced communities. During the period covered by the report, the Israeli occupation procedures led to the forced displacement of 28 Bedouin communities.
* For this column, “Partial” indicates cases where a portion of the community in question was displaced, rather than the entire community; “Pre-Oct-7” indicates communities that were deported before the aggression on October 7, 2023.
The Most Prominent Models of Forced Displacement in 2023
Case 1. The forced displacement of Wadi As-Seeq/East of Ramallah/Ramallah Governorate:
Following the aggression against the Palestinian people on the 7th of October, armed colonizers began a series of threats against the inhabitants of the community and the crews of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, which had been stationed there for more than 45 days. At the time, 30 families, comprising approximately 180 individuals, including 40 minors, were residing in the area. In the evening hours of October 10, 2023, the families of the community began to evacuate the location in response to the colonizers’ threats.
The community’s residents live in an area of approximately one square kilometer.
The community includes a school built by the residents, accommodating 120 students.
The inhabitants have been living in the location since the 1970s, relying on sheep farming for their livelihood.
Since 1996, the residents have been consistently receiving notifications of the demolition of structures, tents, and barracks, under the pretext of their presence in a military zone, despite evidence that they are outside the designated firing range for training.
Case 2. The Forced Displacement of Khirbet Zanota, Adh Dhahiriya/ Hebron Governorate
Directly following Israeli colonizers made a series of attacks and violent threats, including threats of murder if they did not leave, 36 Palestinian families, comprising a total of 400 individuals, half of whom were children, were displaced from Khirbet Zanota in the southern part of the West Bank. On October 28, 2023, the residents dismantled around 50 tent and barrack structures, and evacuated the area along with their livestock, totaling 4,700 sheep.
The land area of Khirbet Zanota in the southern Hebron Governorate is 12,000 dunams.
All classified as Area C. It is surrounded on the west by the detour colonial road, on the east by the colonial industrial area, and on the south by the Annexation and Expansion Wall. On the north, the historical ruins of the village are surrounded by the colonies of “Metar, Tima, and Shim’a.”
The displacement of these families grants the occupation control over more than 20,000 dunams of land surrounding the village.
The school accommodates 43 students, including 10 children in kindergarten, along with several teachers. The school, which was targeted for demolition and reconstructed with “zinc” and brick panels, comprises 6 rooms, facilities, and a health unit.
There is a provisional Israeli court decision protecting the colony’s buildings from demolition, issued in 2016.
The colony has received demolition notifications, which have not been implemented, particularly targeting the Municipal Council building and the health clinic.
Case 3. The Forced Displacement of Ein Ar-Rashash/Thahr Al-Jabal/East of Ramallah:
Fifteen families, totaling 95 people, including 21 minors, used to reside in the area. On October 9, 2023, a group of colonizers blocked the road leading to the community’s residence. It is important to point out that the Israeli occupation army has blocked the road multiple times and the community managed to open it again. The colonizers also blocked the water tank from reaching the area forcing the community to relocate 1500 sheep to the village of Duma. By October 13, 2023, all women and children had relocated to the village of Duma, and on October 16, 2023, all the men joined them in the area next to the Duman village.
Case 4. The Forced Displacement of Khirbat Jab’it/North of Ramallah
Eight families, totaling 25 people, including 10 minors, resided in the area. On October 13, 2023, the community left the area due to colonizers’ threats. They left most of their possessions behind, fearing to retrieve them because of the ongoing threats and because the colonizers blocked the road leading to the area.
Photo: the scene around the houses that were damaged or destroyed.
October 15, 2024 | By Diana Khwaelid
A new wave of destruction has hit Jenin, as the infrastructure of the city and the camp was once again ravaged, and two Palestinians were killed during an Israeli operation that lasted 8 continuous hours.
On Monday morning, October 14th, Israeli occupying forces stormed the city of Jenin in the northern West Bank. Palestinians discovered the presence of Israeli special forces inside the Jenin camp.
Just a few hours after the start of the day and normal life in Jenin, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city and camp in broad daylight. Palestinians hurriedly closed their shops, and soon, the city and camp became ghost towns, as seen in previous Israeli military incursions.
Israeli forces surrounded a Palestinian house in the Al-Aloub neighborhood inside the camp while also positioning themselves in more than five other neighborhoods.
New Destruction
Using a bulldozer, Israeli forces caused further damage to the watermelon roundabout, one of the main intersections in Jenin, connecting the city to the camp. The roundabout had been destroyed in a previous attack.
A secondary road leading to Jenin State Hospital was also destroyed, and a three-story house, besieged at the start of the incursion, was bombed. Other areas and neighborhoods in Jenin also suffered extensive damage.
Scenes of destruction are familiar to Palestinians, particularly in Jenin and the camp, which endured significant destruction during a previous military operation that lasted ten days.
Incursion and Arrests
As Israeli forces continued to storm Jenin and the camp, they also invaded the nearby village of Jaba, arresting at least nine Palestinians.
“The city of Jenin and the camp also witnessed the arrests of other young people” stated Palestinian news sources.
Obstruction of Medical Staff
Eyewitnesses from the Red Crescent medical team reported that Israeli forces obstructed their movements and work, both in Jenin and within the camp, during the incursion. An ambulance was prevented from reaching an injured Palestinian person from the town of Qabatiya, who later died after being left to bleed for hours.
A Palestinian paramedic, on duty during the incursion, was arrested, detained for hours, and then later released.
The martyr from Qabatiya, identified as Mahmoud Abu al-Rub, was a former prisoner who had been released five months ago, after spending four years in Israeli prison. He was killed by multiple gunshots from Israeli forces in the Al-Sibat neighborhood of Jenin.
Medical sources reported that 17-year-old student Rayan Ibrahim al-Sayed was also killed after being wounded by Israeli forces during the incursion. Another young man, Salah Jabarin, succumbed to wounds sustained about a month ago, joining his father, who had been martyred on the same day Salah was injured.
Jenin’s mosques mourned the three martyrs, and funeral ceremonies were held for each of them. Friends and family bade their final farewells in deep grief and sorrow.
According to the Shirin Abu Akleh Observatory, the number of Palestinian martyrs this year has risen to 20,316. Since October 7, the number of martyrs in the West Bank has reached 724. In Jenin alone, 198 people have been killed since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza and the near-daily military operations in the West Bank.
Photos showing additional scenes from the incursion and its aftermath
Photo: Portrait of Michael Jacobsen provided to the ISM.
October 10, 2024 – Masafer Yatta | Israeli forces arbitrarily arrested 78 year old US citizen.
Veteran Michael Jacobsen was accompanying a Palestinian farmer this morning in the village At-Tuwani in Masafer Yatta (South Hebron Hills), in occupied Palestine, as part of the international delegation Meta Peace Team, which joined the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).
When Israeli reservist soldiers came to demand IDs from the activists and Palestinian landowners, Jacobsen complied with the soldiers’ requests. The soldiers called the Israeli police, who arrested him and took him to the Israeli Central Unit for Investigation, which is near the Ma’ale Adumim colonial settlement in the occupied West Bank. This interrogation center is home to the special task force created by the notorious Israeli Minister Itamar Ben Gvir. The task force was created as a response to some states, including the U.S., sanctioning violent settlers. Since international activists were reporting settler violence that they witnessed to their governments, an Israeli governmental committee was created in March 2024 for the purpose of getting rid of the activists.
Jacobsen’s lawyer was told that he was suspected of “endangering the public due to provocation of disturbances” and of “entering the country illegally”; this absurd suspicion was based on the police’s assertion that Jacobsen supported the Palestinian Boycott Divestment and Sanction movement (BDS). The police could not explain to Mr. Jacobsen’s attorney how this was a criminal offense. Mr. Jacobsen was threatened with imprisonment and deportation if he did not leave the country immediately. Michael opted to leave, and the police transferred him directly from the interrogation center to the border with Jordan.
Israeli forces have intensified their crackdown on international activists and journalists: two German activists were arrested in the same garden in At-Tuwani in similar circumstances and de-facto deported last Sunday October 6th, after being imprisoned since October 2nd. This effort aims to isolate Palestinians from international solidarity, and is part of the ongoing barrage of harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers of Palestinians and of human rights activists in the area. The effort also includes the murder of American and Turkish ISM volunteer Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the village of Beita during a peaceful protest against settlement expansion on the village’s land on September 6th.
It is worth mentioning that the Palestinian farmer whom the activists were accompanying faces daily harassment, attacks, and invasions of his private land by Israeli settlers and occupation forces, which all make it difficult for him to access his land, to cultivate it, and even to remain in his home.
This onslaught of harassment against Palestinian residents of the region of Masafer Yatta extends beyond At-Tuwani. Every village in the area is affected. In the village of Zanuta in this same region, residents have been forcibly displaced multiple times despite a court ruling in their favor. Residents of Um Durit have had their livestock and property stolen and destroyed, and their land abused by settlers. Last July, around 200 settlers launched a coordinated attack in which they destroyed vehicles, burned fruit trees and beat up residents in Khalet Al Daba’a and Um Fagarah. In the past year, at least 19 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have been forcefully displaced and wiped off the map by Israeli settlers, with the support of the Israeli occupation forces.
The nonsensical allegations aimed at International Human Rights Defenders would be laughable if they were not lethal. For similar vague and unsubstantiated accusations, Palestinians are frequently arrested and tortured in the West Bank, and in Gaza the accused are murdered along with their families.
Photo: Moments before Michael Jacobsen’s arrest, At-Tuwani, Masafer Yatta, October 10.
Israeli colonial settlers and Knesset Members celebrated on social media the de facto deportation of two German citizens, who were imprisoned by the Israeli authorities, from the occupied Palestinian territories to Jordan on Sunday October 6th. Itamar Ben Gvir and Tzvi Sukot posted about the expulsion of German activists as an achievement for their special task force and governmental committee, which was created to deal with what they call “dangerous anarchists” in the West Bank. Israel’s criminal right wing government uses the term “anarchists” to refer to all Israeli and international human rights defenders who are supporting Palestinians living under illegal occupation in the West Bank.
According to eyewitnesses, on the morning of October 2, the two activists were arbitrarily arrested by Israeli forces in Masafer Yatta (South Hebron Hills) as they accompanied a Palestinian farmer to his garden in the village of Tuwani. The Palestinian farmer they were accompanying faces daily harassment, attacks, and invasions of his private land by Israeli settlers and occupation forces, which all make it difficult for him to access his land, to cultivate it, and even to remain in his home. Police claimed in court that the activists had entered a settlement, confronted a soldier and disturbed him in fulfilling his duty. These claims contradict video footage of the arrest.
The onslaught of harassment against Palestinian residents of the region of Masafer Yatta extends beyond Tuwani. Every village in the area is affected. In the village of Zanuta in this same region, residents have been forcibly displaced multiple times despite a court ruling in their favor. Residents of Um Durit have had their livestock and property stolen and destroyed, and their land abused by settlers. Last July, around 200 settlers launched a coordinated attack in which they destroyed vehicles, burned fruit trees and beat up residents in Khalet Al Daba’a and Um Fagarah. In the past year, at least 19 Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank have been forcefully displaced by Israel settlers with the support of the Israeli occupation forces.
The activists were transferred to the central unit in the occupied West Bank near the Malleh Adumim colonial settlement. The police illegally broke into the phone of one of the activists and questioned them about photos on their phones of signs and stickers condemning the genocide in Gaza and supporting Palestinian rights. The police alleged that this proved that they supported terror and were terrorists. They were also questioned on whether they knew about the International Solidarity movement (ISM), and were shown a presentation on the organization with pictures of Israelis and internationals and asked if they knew them.
The activists were taken to court and accused of three offenses: disturbing a police officer/soldier performing his responsibilities, membership in an illegal association, and “sympathizing and identifying with a terror organization”. According to the police, the illegal association they are members of is ISM, which they claimed has been designated as forbidden to work in Israel and the West Bank.
It is important to note that while many respectable human rights organizations have been designated as terror organizations by Israel, the ISM has not yet been designated as forbidden, nor has any international ISM activist ever been indicted and charged with a crime in Israeli courts.
The German citizens were imprisoned in harsh conditions from Wednesday to Sunday and then given the option of leaving through the King Hussein bridge, and they are now in Jordan. For similar vague and unsubstantiated accusations, Palestinians are frequently arrested and tortured in the West Bank, and in Gaza the accused are murdered along with their families.
This most recent set of arrests is part of the ongoing barrage of harassment by Israeli settlers and soldiers of Palestinians and of human rights activists in area, and comes in the wake of the murder of ISM volunteer Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi in the village of Beita during a protest against settlement expansion on the village’s land.
