Tag: Hebron

What Does Israel Want in The West Bank?

Northern West Bank By Diana Khwaelid

Israel is carrying out massive military operations to displace residents of camps in the northern West Bank, unprecedented since the Second Intifada. Since the seventh of October, Israeli attacks on West Bank cities, especially in the north, have not stopped. We are talking about the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, Tubas, Nablus and Qalqilya.

Destruction of Palestinian refugee camps
At the end of January, Israel carried out a large scale military operation in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, which has lasted for ten days so far.

Its military operations are based in the Jenin refugee camp, in various city areas, and in some nearby villages. The Jenin camp has become an unfit place for human habitation, dozens of Palestinian houses have been destroyed and bombed, and the neighborhoods and streets of the camp have already been destroyed. Water, electricity pipes and infrastructure have been destroyed.

A residential block and an entire neighbourhood have been completely destroyed due to aerial bombardment.

Did you succeed in transforming the Jenin camp like Jabalia camp in Gaza?
This is what senior Israeli officials promised before the start of the recent military operation in the West Bank, especially in the Northern West Bank. The Israeli occupation continues its aggression on Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas, murdering 29 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, demolition of houses and forced displacement. Amid widespread destruction of property and infrastructure.

JENIN
Jenin, for the fifteenth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the Jenin city and its camp, which has so far resulted in 25 martyrs, dozens of injuries, arrests, and the demolition of dozens of houses, amid a large displacement process that affected 15 thousand citizens.

Yesterday morning, the occupation army forced residents of the buildings supervising the Jenin camp to evacuate, as several military vehicles were stationed near the buildings demanding evacuation.

Residential buildings and apartments are being emptied, forcibly displacing citizens.

The occupation forces in the Jenin camp simultaneously blew up about 20 buildings in the eastern side of the camp, after booby trapping them, which caused damage to some sections of the Jenin government hospital, without injuries being recorded. The occupation continues to push reinforcements to the city of Jenin camp from the Jalama military checkpoint, while its

bulldozers continue to destroy houses in the merge lane, with approximately 15 thousand people now displaced from the Jenin camp the target neighborhood, distributed throughout 39 local community bodies in the Jenin governorate and its towns.

Transfer of an injured person in Tulkarem

TULKAREM
For the ninth day in a row, the occupation continues its aggression against the city of Tulkarm and its camp, resulting in the martyrdom of four citizens, amidst extremely difficult humanitarian conditions.

The occupation forces are still pushing more of their vehicles into the city and its camp from the “tasnouz” military camp west of Tulkarm, and deploying infantry patrols in large numbers in the streets, neighborhoods, and the center of the vegetable market, combing and searching between houses and alleys and harassing citizens.

These forces also continue to besiege the martyr Thabit Thabit government and specialized hospitals, obstruct the work of ambulances and their medical crews, and subject them to inspection and field investigation, while they have taken military barracks and places for snipers from the buildings surrounding them.

The occupation forces escalated their violations against citizens in the city and its camp through a series of attacks, which included raiding houses, forcing their owners to flee, vandalizing and

stealing their contents, blowing up and destroying a number of them, in addition to restricting movement, while seizing commercial and residential buildings and turning them into military barracks and places for snipers.

In Tulkarem camp, the occupation forces continue to deploy large numbers of infantry soldiers in all its neighborhoods and alleys, raid houses, force residents to leave them, seize high buildings and turn them into sniper platforms and shoot at Citizens, which led to the injury of a citizen (40 years), shot by an occupation soldiers sniper stationed inside one of these buildings.

Tulkarem camp is living amid this unprecedented continuous escalation, amid difficult humanitarian conditions, after the occupation bulldozers completely and partially destroyed houses and shops, blowing up a number of them and burning others, coinciding with the destruction of infrastructure, which led to the interruption of water, electricity, communications and the internet, making it difficult for specialized crews from the municipality, and others, to repair them because the occupation prevented them from entering the camp. The situation of citizens who are still in their homes ~ the elderly, the sick, women and children has also been aggravated by the acute shortage of food, medical, drinking water, and infant formula.

TUBAS
For the third day in a row, the occupation is besieging AL- FARA’ camp and the town of Tamoun south of Tubas, amid arrests, bulldozing of infrastructure and forcing citizens to flee.

Since the beginning of the storming, Israeli Occupation Forces forces have bulldozed the roads and infrastructure leading to the AL-FARA’ camp, in addition to closing all entrances to it with earthen berms and raiding houses in the vicinity of the camp, forcing its residents to be displaced, and turning them into military barracks.

Israeli Occupation Forces also raided the homes of citizens on the outskirts of the town of Tamun, forcibly displacing residents, giving them orders not to return within ten days.

Water pipelines have been destroyed between the Town of Tamun and the village of Atouf, in addition to closing of the road connecting the two areas with earthen berms.

The occupation continues to push military reinforcements to Tamun and the AL-FARA’ camp, while the Israeli reconnaissance aircraft continues to fly intensively in the skies of the governorate.

According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health : the percentage of Palestinian martyrs in the West Bank since the beginning of

this year 2025 has reached 70 martyrs.

38 martyrs in Jenin
15 martyrs in Tubas
5 martyrs in Tulkarem
3 martyrs in Hebron
2 martyrs in Bethlehem
6 martyrs in Nablus
1 martyr in Jerusalem
10 of them are children, 2 of them are women, 2 of them are elderly people.

Settler Harassment During “Shabbat Chayei Sarah” in Al-Khalil

November 21/ 22 – Al-Khalil

Music, songs, dancing, prayers and alcohol. This could chracterize a common religious festival anywhere – were it not being used as an excuse for Israeli settlers to attack and raid the Palestinian community, which is already living under segregation since 1997, in the city known as al-Khalil for the Palestinians and Hebron for the Israeli.

As it happens every year, tens of thousands of settlers and Zionists from abroad gathered in the city on Friday, Nov. 22, and Saturday, Nov. 23, to celebrate “Shabbat Chayei Sarah”, coinciding with the Torah reading of the story of Sarah (one of the wives of Abraham). Sarah is believed to be buried in what Israelis call the Cave of the Patriarchs. Commonly known as “Sarah Day”, this event has for years turned into a kind of pogrom against Palestinians living in Al-Khalil.

In previous years, settlers have attacked Palestinian homes, cars and stores, attempted to start fires, and done massive marches which start from the Shuhada Street (almost completely closed to Palestinians), cross check-points and spill into the Palestinian part of the city. The Sarah’s Sabbath is one of those days that worsen the already oppressive living conditions for Palestinians living in al-Khalil, conditions which have become almost impossible since October 7. The entire area was blocked off to Palestinians for the weekend – the check-points were completely closed, preventing passage from one side of the city to the other.

Settlers began arriving the day before (Nov. 21); buses from settlements throughout the West Bank and ’48 (Israel proper) brought thousands of young people, families, and military personnel to camp in tents around the Ibrahimi Mosque and Al-Shuhada Street. The celebration began here, around what’s considered a sacred historical monument built over the cavern containing the tombs of Abraham, his wife Sarah, and sons Isaac and Jacob. Al-Shuhada Street has been almost inaccessible to Palestinians for 27 years now; it was closed by the military after the so-called Hebron Protocol in 1997 and the beginning of the geographic apartheid of al-Khalil.

Settlers marching through Palestinian neighborhoods

On Friday evening, groups of settlers carried out night marches in the Jaber neighborhood and Palestinian-inhabited areas near the Kiryat Arba settlement, chanting slogans and insults against Arabs and Palestinians. Also present was Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the far-right Otzma Yehudit party, who was celebrating Sarah’s Sabbath surrounded by worshippers in the afternoon and leading a group of settlers in chanting anti-Arab slogans in the evening. Ben Gvir is one of about eight thousand inhabitants of the huge illegal settlement of Kiryat Arba, known for its extremist and violent views. That settlement was also the hometown of Baruch Kopel Goldstein, the Israeli-American terrorist who in 1994 opened fire on hundreds of Muslims praying in the Ibrahimi Mosque, killing 29 people and wounding 125. Ben Gvir is known to keep an image of the terrorist in his living room.

On Saturday, a number of youth groups gathered in one of the main outposts inside the city, the Beit Romano settlement. After gathering beyond the gate that closes al-Shuhada, they began throwing stones and shouting insults and slogans against Arabs. In years prior, the military allowed and facilitated a march that invaded the old city, forcing Palestinian merchants to close their stalls and barricade themselves in their homes for fear of settler violence.

Settlers chanting slurs towards Palestinians

This year that particular march was not held, perhaps because of the current political situation. “Fortunately, there was little violence this year,” confirmed B., a member of a local human rights association. “But life in al-Khalil is becoming more and more difficult,” B. continued. “We live in apartheid, and since October 7 things have gotten even worse. They open and close the city as they want. After the beginning of the conflict, for ten consecutive days we were forced indoors with one hour a day when we could go out.”

Hebron is in fact a divided city, a Palestine in miniature: metal turnstiles, walls and at least 28 check-points separate the Israeli-controlled H2 zone from the Palestinian Authority-held H1. Some 33,000 Palestinians live in the Israeli state-controlled zone, which in addition to dividing families and communities, forces thousands of people to pass through lengthy security checks on a daily basis and endure mistreatment, abuse and arbitrary closures of entire neighborhoods. OCHA’s September 2023 survey found that there were a total of 80 blockades inside the city (including the 28 “constantly-staffed” checkpoints), but since October 7 they have reportedly increased to 113 in the Old City and 180 throughout Hebron.

Settlers in Shuhada St.

This is a true internal apartheid imposed upon Palestinians in the West Bank. Painting a picture of what apartheid is like in Hebron, B. narrated: “From my home in the Jaber neighborhood (H2 area), it would take me five minutes to walk to the mosque. Now I don’t go there anymore, I would have to go through eight checkpoints, between road closures and check-points. Their goal is to tire us out, to get us out of these neighborhoods.” He spoke of “voiceless displacement”, the silent removal of Palestinians because of the continued abuse, violence, and economic hardship Palestinians are forced to endure.

“Since 2000, since the beginning of the walls and check-points, more than 580 stores have
been closed due to military orders, and more than 1,800 stores have suffered huge economic repercussions or closed due to the limited mobility of people in the city,” B. added. In addition to the suffering associated with harassment and endless waiting at check-points, there are raids, arrests, and arbitrary detentions. “I too have been forced in prison, like almost everyone in Palestine… That’s the Zionist ideology’s way of doing things,” related B. “They do things gradually, they try to change the demographics of the neighborhoods. They make people leave quietly because they force them into a non-life. And then they take everything.”

There are about 700 settlers living in the Old City, protected by 2,300 soldiers. “For every settler there are three soldiers: that gives the idea of the situation,” said B., speaking of the completely militarized city. And now the settlers have donned a uniform and become military themselves, resulting in increased violence toward Palestinians. “Al-Khalil is the only city in the West Bank where settlements are also inside the city. And they are trying to enlarge the settlements all the time.”

Al-Khalil: a city, a small Palestine.

Empty Old City of Al-Khalil due to blocks and restrictions

Impending Famine, Infectious Disease and Starvation. It is Christmas in Palestine.

Gaza / Occupied West Bank 12/24/2023

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian children in Gaza are at risk of famine and preventable death from disease as the world’s observant retreat into family and faith to mark the birth of another Palestinian child. In a lightless, treeless Bethlehem, haunting displays capture the specter of a collective grief. Christ lies in the rubble. And just over 70 kilometers away in Gaza, many thousands of Palestinians are entombed in the very same reality.

Christmas falls quiet on Bethlehem. Photo Credit, ISM

Through the doorway of a thousand checkpoints, the children of the West Bank avoid the binding of their hands and the breaking of their bones as occupation forces have leapt in tandem with the perpetrators of the Gaza genocide, exacting spasms of violence on their own long descent from humanity. To the immediate west of the place of Christ’s birth, a Palestinian child’s life was stolen by the bullets of the occupation just days ago. Mahmoud Mohammad Zaaoul lay murdered in the village of Husan. In occupied East Jerusalem, faithful Muslims endured beatings and pursuit on horseback by occupation soldiers energized by their greenlit domination of the indigenous population, arbitrarily blocking prayers from being spoken in Al Aqsa Mosque by Palestinian worshippers.

It is Christmas in Palestine.

16 year old Mahmoud Mohammad Zaaoul was killed on 12/20 west of Bethlehem by occupation forces. Photo Credit: WAFA

According to a UNICEF press release dated December 22nd, the latest statistics “warn that acute food insecurity puts all children under five in the Gaza Strip—335,000—at high risk of severe malnutrition and preventable death.” As a traumatized population of genocide-displaced, the people of Gaza have been forced between districts with bombs and drones biting at their heels. Public health and sanitation conditions are non-existent.

Frigid wind and rain have exacerbated illness and flooded small handmade structures that displaced Gazans are existing within as their homes lie in ruins. The World Health Organization has been sounding the alarm about the dangerous prevalence of diarrhea in children; the swelling statistic of instances is nearing 60,000 affected. This is further worsening the already horrific sanitation conditions and rising dehydration with many spending endless days searching for water, albeit contaminated and fueling illness.

Gaza is being ravaged by not only bloody diarrhea, but a host of other illnesses which are tearing through the traumatized population. Hepatitis A, jaundice, meningitis and respiratory infections as dangerous smoke from the burning of found materials to stay warm wafts across densely packed makeshift shelters peppering the gouged landscape.

Pre-existing medical conditions did not cease to be a battle impacted Palestinians were fighting prior to the gears of genocide thrusting towards them through the joint American-Israeli operation. Dialysis and cancer patients, diabetics in need of regular insulin and the means with which to maintain and monitor their blood glucose levels, disabled Palestinians needing around the clock care, stroke and cardiac patients reliant on medication to sustain life- every normal function of their medical support system lies broken among the wreckage.

In the occupied West Bank, flashes of violence strike across heavily targeted communities from Jenin to Nablus. From Tulkarm to al Khalil. The violent raids have been ramping up with the world viewing the horror through both the careful and courageous documentation of Palestinians on the ground as well as through countless antagonistic and cruel tiktok videos shared by occupation forces, mocking and dehumanizing Palestinians as they raid and desecrate a Mosque while using its amplification for prayer to sing Jewish songs. As they sit smoking on the couches of a Palestinian family home laughing and filming bound and blindfolded Palestinians gathered on the ground before them.

Running from the terror of flying rockets, earth shattering explosions and buildings collapsing around them, 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza are among those fighting to survive. Over 180 births are taking place each day in genocide-torn Gaza. They are taking place in the rubble, in packed lobbies of shelters, in makeshift tent structures. The conditions are beyond horrific with only a fraction of hospital beds available from before October 7th across all Gaza’s districts. This says nothing of Palestinians ability to access one of the few medical facilities left in the devastated Gaza Strip.

The situation swells to new heights of crisis as the observant mark the day that Mary, having nowhere to stay in the town, utilized a makeshift crib to lay down her infant as angels sang the birth of the Christ lying in a Bethlehem manger.

Like so many children in Gaza, in today’s Bethlehem, Christ lies in the rubble.

Christmas in Bethlehem. Photo Credit: ISM

Worldwide Pressure Escalates with Global Strike for Gaza

Striking Palestinians across the occupied West Bank have been joined by millions in countries across the world for the Global Strike for Gaza, which was announced by a coalition of major Palestinian factions. The cadence of the strike declarations accelerated rapidly throughout the day in demand of an immediate ceasefire and an end to the genocide in Gaza.

The global strike action was coordinated in response to the dashing of efforts toward an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. Comfortably seated with his arm stretched high, US Ambassador Alternate Representative of the US for Special Political Affairs in the United Nations Robert A. Wood lit a fire of rage and condemnation across every continent following his signaling that the United States would use its veto power to kill a UN resolution, supported almost thoroughly through the UN security council, to block an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Entire nations shut down. A strike was born.

Sign on shop in Jordan announcing closure due to strike. Photo Credit: (MEE/Mohammad Ersan)

Occupied West Bank:

Across the territory, shops fell silent. Schools remained closed. Government offices shut down. Masses gathered in Ramallah’s Al-Manara Square for what was, by many accounts, the largest crowd gathered in protest in the area in some time. Palestinian children made art work and protestors carried a banner naming Gaza’s martyrs while large protests occurred simultaneously in al Khalil. Shops in occupied East Jerusalem remained shuttered through the day as the global strike action flashed across the planet with several countries joining in nationwide efforts to deal economic blows to the heart of the powers who profit from the continuation of occupation force’s genocide in Gaza.

Silence in the streets of Nablus. Photo Credit: [Zain Jaafar/AFP]

Lebanon:

Secretary-general of Lebanon’s Council of Ministers, Mahmoud Mekkiya delivered the announcement to the nation; all governments and national institutions would be shuttered in solidarity with the global call out. In reports out of major Lebanese cities, “workers downed tools” and the call for global strike was supported in calls for nationwide solidarity by the ministers of education and culture and several heads of finance. People across Lebanon engaged in the strike in solidarity with Gaza as well as southern Lebanese villages which have also been impacted in occupation forces bombardment.

Jordan:

Streets were bare across Jordan as a stunning show of solidarity surged through “the transportation sector, aviation, trade, banks, ports, as well as schools and universities.” Thousands gathered in the streets of Amman and across Jordan in massive protests. Handmade signs announcing solidarity strikes were placed across hundreds of shops as the nation grinded to a halt in a powerful cry to end the continued atrocities being committed in Gaza.

Photo Credit: English News.cn (Photo by Mohammad Abu Ghosh/Xinhua)

Turkey:

In observation of the strike, the country saw abandoned streets throughout the day, with images circulating across social media of empty streets and gated shops in the typically bustling city of Istanbul.

Photo Credit: Palestine Online @OnlinePalEng

While many countries held full nationwide shutdowns in honor of the strike call, others which did not, saw massive protests in major cities across the world. Entire communities vocally joined the strike in solidarity. #StrikeForGaza was trending across social media, businesses announced individual shutdowns, millions across the world did not report to work or school and millions more refused all financial transactions for the day, no physical purchases, no shopping, no online orders. Boycott actions are a powerful tool to cost companies standing on the side of genocide, occupation and apartheid millions of dollars in profit. Momentum continues to build for an end to the bombardment which has now claimed nearly 20,000 lives. Thousands of the missing lie among the rubble.

One day prior to the global strike, the world marked the 75th anniversary of International Human Rights Day as the bombs continued to fall on Gaza.

Masafer Yatta Families Displaced Following Home Demolitions

7 December 2023 | International Solidarity Movement | Masafer Yatta, Occupied West Bank

In just over one week, several Palestinian family homes were relegated to fields of rubble after occupation army bulldozers invaded several villages including al Deirat, Umm Lasafa and Umm Qissa. The demolitions left Palestinian children and their families homeless as the targeted destruction and expulsion of Masafer Yatta communities continues to accelerate.

The ruins of a demolished family home in Masafer Yatta. Photo Credit: BNN

On December 6, Occupation forces took the opportunity to demolish a sheep barn in Umm Qissa overnight during their destructive incursion in furtherance of the attacks on the shepherding and farming infrastructure of Palestinian communities in the South Hebron Hills. Coupled with the violent raids, antagonism and invasion of Palestinian homes by extremist ideological settlers, the pattern of harassment towards the achievement of a land ethnically cleansed of indigenous Palestinians grinds forth.

Taking advantage of the gap in coverage with the world’s eyes on the genocide in Gaza, and the isolated nature of the villages of Masafer Yatta, the occupation army has enabled and participated in the increasing momentum of settler terrorist attacks along with the destruction of residences to force Palestinian expulsion.

On December 3, settler extremists invaded Esfay, Maghayir Al-Abid and At-Tuba, leaving behind them the destroyed water network of a wide swathe of villagers of the South Hebron Hills communities. With surgical exacting, occupation forces are removing all elements of a people’s ability to exist; from the slashing of water cisterns to the destruction of water flow pipes, a community without water cannot survive. In image after image filtering out of the embattled villages, homes are seen crashing down under the gears of army-driven bulldozers while armed IOF stand guarding the destruction from intervention.

Credit: OCHA data on demolition and displacement in the West Bank. 12/03

On OCHA’s data on demolition and displacement in the West Bank website rolling figures which “reflect the demolition of Palestinian-owned structures and the resulting displacement of people from their homes across the West Bank since 2009” are updated every 48 hours. The numbers continue to grow and the project of colonial expansion continues to saturate the occupied West Bank.