For Immediate Release: Israel targets internationals to facilitate ongoing crimes against Palestinians​​​​​​​

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.​​​​​​​

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A new assassination in Nablus

On Wednesday 9th October, around 5:40pm, Israeli special forces entered Nablus by car and carried out a deliberate assassination of four Palestinians who were inside a a black Skoda vehicle, in broad daylight, on Faisal Street, near a popular market. The Israeli special forces’ car was painted in Palestinian colours to pass undercover. They fired directly at the Palestinians’ car which was driving in the center of the city, and in which were five young men, one of which survived and is currently in critical condition.

The attack caused a state of horror and fear amongst the resident of the area and passersby, with people rushing to flee the scene.

A Palestinian woman is crying and being held by a Palestinian man. Around them, a crowd of women and girls are making their way to the funeral march.
One of the martyr’s loved ones in a state of distress at the funeral. @Diana Khwaelid

After shooting at the car from a distance, the Israeli special forces then got out of their car to shoot again at point blank to ensure the Palestinian’s deaths, after which they withdrew from the area. Immediately after, Palestinian medical teams and ambulances rushed to the scene as residents began to gather in front of the assassination site. Due to the intensity of the shooting, onlookers found pieces of flesh and of one of the young men’s brain. All victims were taken to the Rafidia government hospital in Nablus, where they passed away from their injuries.

Shortly thereafter, the Israeli military stormed the city and in particular took over the place where the operation had taken place. Finding that the bodies had been moved to the hospital, they left the scene again.

The funeral ceremony for the martyrs began on Thursday at 10:30 am. It started in front of the Rafidia hospital and proceeded to the martyrs roundabout in the city, where a funeral prayer was held. They then headed to the martyrs’ hometowns of Balata camp and Askar, where they grew up. Hundreds of Palestinians participated in the funeral, chanting for the liberation of Palestine.

A crowd of young Palestinian men hold their hand up high in an act of protest during the funeral march. One man is on another's shoulders. The scene takes place in a city street.
During the funeral march, Palestinians protest against the occupation (1) @Diana Khwaelid
A crowd of young Palestinian men in the act of chanting or clapping while at the funeral march. One man is on another's shoulders and chanting. In the background, there is a large Fatah flag, as well as a stretcher with the corpse of one of the victims.
During the funeral march, Palestinians protest against the occupation (2) @Diana Khwaelid

Amongst the four Palestinians killed was Issam Al-Salaj, commander of the Balata camp battalion, who the citizens of the camp honoured as a martyr that had evaded the Israeli army for years.

For Immediate Release: The State of Israel vs. Activists

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. 

18 Martyrs and Dozens Injured in Israeli Shelling on Tulkarm Camp

On Thursday 3rd October, in the evening, the Israeli military bombed the Tulkarm refugee camp, in the North-East of the West Bank, killing at least 18 Palestinians in a single blast. The attack targeted a popular local café in the al-Hamam neighbourhood, also destroying the apartments above it and murdering the family of four that lived there, including two young children.

The bombing was carried out by an F16 jet, a war plane able to fly extremely quickly and take its target by surprise – which also meant the military was able to use a large missile, instantly wrecking the area and burying victims under heavy rubble, as well as dismembering the bodies.

Rescuers from the Civil Defense Team and Palestinian medical crews reported struggling to look for survivors under the wreckage, and finding many unidentifiable body parts that were transferred in boxes to the hospital.

In just a few days, Palestinians were already planning to commemorate the massacre
of the Nour Shams refugee camp that occurred in Tulkarem on October 22 last year, in which 12 Palestinians were killed, but they did not know that the Israeli occupation would commit a new massacre with such horror just before.

One American activist currently working in the West Bank commented: “The scenes were reminiscent of the genocide still raging in Gaza. In one video posted immediately after the bombing, you see a man’s lifeless body hanging from the building. My group was supposed to be going to Nour Shams tomorrow [Saturday] to distribute aid to the camp but now we can’t because the situation is too unsafe for us. This attack has been devastating.”


While attacks from both the Israeli military and Israeli settlers have been constant in the area since last year and before, this massacre marks a worrying turn as it is the first bombing carried out by a fighter jet in the West Bank since the Second Intifada that lasted from 2002-2005, as well as the deadliest single attack there in over twenty years.

This comes after months of Israeli harassment targeting the Tulkarem refugee camp with raids, strikes and sieges, particularly intensifying in the month of August, which saw a large-scale military operation targeting both Tulkarem and Jenin. Strikes on Tulkarm tend to be particularly murderous, as this camp is home to 25,000 Palestinian refugees.

F16 jets are central to the genocide Israel is leading in Gaza, where scenes like the one seen in Tulkarem on Thursday are daily occurrences. In Gaza, as in the West Bank, refugee camps are the prime targets of Israeli raids where the primary objective is annihilating Palestinians and rendering their land inhabitable. The Israeli strategy remains one of total destruction as a preamble to colonial expansion on stolen land.

There have already been at least 701 Palestinian casualties in the West Bank since October 7th 2023, mostly caused by the Israeli army – the rest by settlers who are often assisted and directly protected by them. If Israel continues to escalate in these areas, this number is likely to go up exponentially in the next few months, furthering the total genocide of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank.

Israeli occupation forces murder journalist Wafa Al Udaini and her family

ISM mourns Wafa Al Udaini, a Palestinian activist and journalist we were honored to have worked with. Israeli forces bombed her home in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza, in the early hours of Monday morning, September 30, murdering Wafa, her husband Munir Atiyeh Al-Udaini, 5-year-old daughter Balsam, and 7-month-old son Tamim. She is survived by her two young sons. 

Wafa was a dedicated and passionate Gaza-based activist and coordinator. She majored in English in Al Aqsa University, with the intention of becoming a teacher and translator. However, anger and frustration with how mainstream media ‘distorts our image in Palestine’, led her towards a career in journalism. She reported from Gaza during the invasions of 2008, 2014-2015 (during which her home was destroyed), and the current genocide, during which her and her family were displaced three times. 

Wafa was committed to teaching Palestinian youth and giving them the skills to tell their stories to the world. Her work ranged from leading a women’s youth group that worked on changing the stereotypes about Palestinians, to founding the Gaza-based 16th October Group, a group of English-language young journalists and activists. ​​​​​​​

‘Being a journalist in Gaza is not an easy task, because every single day, you are subjected to (the possibility) of being killed, injured, or arrested by the Israeli occupation forces. In fact hundreds of journalists get killed by Israeli fire. Everyone is a target.’  – Wafa Al Udaini

She is the 174th journalist killed by Israel since 7 October 2023. Her killing was condemned by the government media office in Gaza and the Palestinian Media Forum​​​​​​​. 

The last article Wafa wrote was, “There is no such thing as protective attire for journalists in Gaza.” In it, she described the total lack of protection for journalists in Gaza, and her colleagues Israeli forces had killed. Journalists in Gaza work “on empty stomachs and often without electricity to cover the genocide of their people”, amidst the constant threat of abduction, torture, or murder from Israeli forces, she wrote. 

E., who volunteered with ISM and worked with Wafa, said: ‘I first got to know Wafa when she was writing about the Great March of Return and life in Gaza under Israeli seige. One thing that impressed me while collaborating with her was her conviction and determination to stay true to what she felt was right, even at great personal cost.’

‘As the genocide became worse and it was clear that Israeli forces would kill anyone who dared to report on it, Wafa continued faithfully documenting the atrocities happening around her, and how Palestinians tried to help each other survive. Even after being targeted by Israeli tank fire, she continued sharing the stories of Gazans until the end, telling me she wanted to “help in spreading the truth.”‘

‘To me, Wafa was a hero, and one of the bravest people I ever knew. Rest in power Wafa, and may you live on in our memories and the truths you told.’

Neta Golan, ISM co-founder, said: ‘Wafa and her family were murdered and dismembered because she was committed to delivering a message from Gaza to the world, about the reality of Israeli colonialism, in English. She believed in us. She believed that if we knew, we would do all we can to end the genocide and support Palestine’s liberation. She risked her life to tell us about the reality of the unfolding genocide, and The Israeli occupation murdered her and her family members for it. But the truth can not be silenced. We are committed to Wafa’s mission of amplifying Palestinian voices, and we are committed to heeding their call.’