A year has passed since the outbreak of the Israeli military’s campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank, a campaign marked by severe restrictions and a comprehensive blockade.
The West Bank has faced various forms of aggression over the past year, beginning with the imposition of a total lockdown, isolating towns and cities, and turning the territory into a series of disconnected enclaves.
This assault has been compounded by political and economic warfare against the Palestinian Authority (PA) and leadership, all as part of the Israeli extreme right-wing government’s agenda to forcibly displace Palestinians from the West Bank, an area it considers to be part of ancient “Judea and Samaria.”
Throughout the past year, the West Bank has endured political, economic, and military hardships, with Israel increasing its attacks on Palestinian land, escalating from the imposition of checkpoints and closures to enacting discriminatory political measures.
These culminated in recent weeks with the initiation of “summer camp” operations targeting Palestinian refugee camps, which Israel claims have become strongholds of armed Palestinian groups.
Journalist Anan Shehadeh, who has been monitoring developments in the West Bank, toldAl-Ahram Weekly that Israeli forces have significantly escalated their attacks against the Palestinian people, taking advantage of the global media’s preoccupation with other crises.
This has given the Israeli government the opportunity to carry out crimes ranging from easing restrictions on the use of live ammunition to arming settlers and expanding settlement construction, all the while issuing policies aimed at weakening the PA.
The Israeli siege on the West Bank has resulted in significant casualties. Data from the Palestinian Ministry of Health shows that since 7 October last year, around 750 Palestinians have been killed, most of whom were innocent civilians. Israeli forces have intensified their targeting of civilians, with the Ministry of Health reporting that most of the victims were killed by deliberate sniper fire.
Shehadeh said that Israeli forces have employed military means and violence in violation of international law, including the use of warplanes and drones against civilian targets under the pretext of attacking Palestinian militants. Theseassaults have primarily targeted areas like Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas as part of Israel’s operations aimed at combatting Palestinian resistance fighters.
Shehadeh said that the international community’s silence has emboldened the Israeli forces to continue and escalate their attacks. They have been compounded by the Israeli government’s decision to arm the settlers as part of projects led by far-right ministers, particularly National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who has distributed hundreds of thousands of weapons to settlers.
This has given the settlers the green light to carry out their crimes, with attacks recorded in Palestinian villages including Huwara, TurmusAyya, Al-Mughayyir, Abu Falah, Beita, and Umm Safa, most of which are in the northern West Bank.
MILITARY OPERATIONS:Over the course of the past year, Israeli forces have conducted multiple raids across cities and refugee camps in the West Bank, the most significant of which occurred during the “summer camp” operation launched on the morning of 28 August.
This involved a large-scale assault on the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Tubas in the northern West Bank targeting Palestinian resistance fighters. It was described by Israeli officials as the largest offensive since Operation Defensive Shield in 2002.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that 11 Palestinians were killed in the first hours of the operation, most of them resistance fighters who were targeted by Israeli drones.
In the early hours of 28 August, Israeli forces imposed a full blockade on the cities of Jenin, Tubas, and Tulkarm. The operation was carried out with the participation of the Kfir Brigade (an infantry brigade), four battalions of the Border Police, undercover units, elite forces, and military engineering units, in coordination with the Israeli Security Agency Shin Bet.
It also received aerial support from Israeli military helicopters, fighter jets, and drones, which provided cover for the ground forces.
According to the Israeli media, the assault was launched because the situation in the West Bank had become a “serious concern” for Israel. The operation targeted what the Israeli forces described as the infrastructure of Palestinian militant groups, with the aim of reasserting control over the northern West Bank. The offensive began with incursions from multiple directions.
Israeli forces launched their assault on Jenin from three fronts, advancing from the Jalameh checkpoint in the north and the Salem and Dotan checkpoints in the west. Simultaneously, additional forces stormed Tulkarm from the west at Nitzanei Oz, the south at Jabara, and the eastat the Anabta checkpoint.
Tayseer Nasrallah, a member of the Palestinian Fatah Revolutionary Council, said that Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinian people is approaching its one-year mark, having left thousands dead and wounded, with millions displaced and widespread destruction of homes, infrastructure, and public facilities.
The 28 August operation was part of this, he said, stressing that Israel’s appetite for destruction continues unabated. The ongoing assaultsare a heavy burden on the Palestinian people, and all sections of society suffer as a result. Nasrallah said that there seems to be no end in sight, nor any desire on the part of the international community to pressure Israel into halting the war.
Nasrallah said that since 7 October, the West Bank has become a primary target of Israel’s aggressive campaign. He warned that all possibilities remain open, with increasing attacks on civilians and their land, and the unchecked actions of settlers, particularly against Palestinian farmers.
While the Israeli army carries out criminal operations in refugee camps, cities, and villages, settlers are simultaneously attacking them, leading to the deaths of dozens of Palestinians and the burning of their homes and vehicles.
Nasrallah cautioned that the West Bank is on the verge of an even more dangerous period as the Israeli aggression intensifies. He noted that Israeli aggression against the West Bank has not ceased in recent months and years, citing multiple airstrikes and shelling operations in cities like Jenin, Nablus, and Tulkarm.
He recalled the emergence of groups like the Lions Den and the Jenin Brigadesand highlighted that over 720 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October, illustrating the region’s critical status as a primary target for Israeli forces.
Israel is targeting Palestinian refugee camps to make them uninhabitable, he said, aiming to force the refugees out of the areas they have lived in while waiting for their return. He noted that Israel’s attacks on UN Palestinian Refugee Agency UNRWA are part of its efforts to erase the refugee issue entirelyand impose a military resolution to the conflict.
UNIMAGINABLE CRIMES:Beginning on 7 October, Palestinian detainees have faced a brutal campaign of arrests and torture that includes assaults and humiliationwith prisoners stripped, photographed, and starved under appalling conditions.
Since the start of the war on Gaza, the Israeli authorities have blocked international organisations, including the International Red Cross, from visiting Israeli prisons to assess the conditions of Palestinian prisoners.
Abdullah Al-Zughari, head of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society, told theWeekly that the abuses committed against prisoners over the past year are beyond comprehension. TheIsraeli army has arrested more than 11,000 Palestinians since 7 October, he said, when the campaign of mass arrests and collective punishment against the Palestinian people began.
The detainees have been subjected to threats of gunfire, severe beatings, on-the-spot interrogations, and rape, with reports of sexual assault against some prisoners. In some cases, videos of the assaults have been circulated to humiliate the prisoners. The Israeli army has also used attack dogs, human shields, and handcuffs as tools of intimidation, while other prisoners have been summarily executed during arrest operations.
The wave of arrests has also involved the widespread destruction of homes, the confiscation of personal belongings, and the demolition of homes belonging to prisoners held in Israeli custody. Many detainees and their families have suffered physical injuries, and numerous testimonies indicate that some have been left without medical treatment. The violent raids on Palestinian homes have also led to psychological trauma, particularly among children.
As part of these atrocities, Israeli soldiers have filmed the arrests of Palestinian civilians under degrading conditions. One widely circulated video shows Israeli soldiers torturing a group of civilians who had been stripped off their clothes, while another depicts detainees blindfolded, bound, and draped with the Israeli flag as an act of humiliation.
In Gaza, arrests have been a key feature of Israel’s campaign, with thousands of civilians taken into custody alongside numerous extrajudicial executions. Images have surfaced of hundreds of Gazan civilians, stripped and crowded into open spaces, streets, and military vehicles, enduring degrading and inhumane treatment.
Al-Zughari said that the torture of the Gaza detainees represents a turning point in the history of torture in Israeli prisons and military camps. With the release of some detainees from Gaza, testimonies have emerged revealing unprecedented levels of abuse, which have intensified as more prisoners are freed.
Israel has established special camps to detain Gaza prisoners alongside its central prisons, with facilities like the Sde Teyman and AnatotCamps becoming synonymous with torture.
Since 7 October, at least 24 Palestinian prisoners have died in Israeli prisons and military camps, Al-Zughari said, with their identities disclosed. Additionally, dozens of Gazan detainees have died in custody, but Israel has refused to release the details. Among the 24 named prisoners, 22 bodies have been withheld by the Israeli authorities, part of a broader total of 33 prisoners whose remains are still being held.
Al-Zughari, whose organisation has been advocating for prisoners’ rights for 31 years, noted that as of September this year, over 9,900 Palestinians from the West Bank are being held in Israeli prisons. This includes 3,323 administrative detainees.
A further 1,612 Gaza detainees have been classified as “unlawful combatants,” although this figure does not account for the thousands held in military camps. Israeli sources indicate the total number of Gazan prisoners exceeds 4,500.
The Palestinian Prisoners Club estimates that there are 93 known female detainees, including Jihad Dar Nakhla, a pregnant woman, and three women from Gaza held at the Damon Prison. Additionally, 21 women are being held under administrative detention. However, this does not account for all female detainees from Gaza, as some may be held in Israeli military camps, with their identities kept secret.
The number of child detainees stands at a minimum of 250, though this figure likely underestimates the total number of children from Gaza currently held in Israeli military camps.
Al-Zugharicalled on international organisations to take immediate action to protect Palestinian prisoners after a year of ongoing torture, killing, starvation, rape, overcrowding, and other violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention.
THE WEST BANK:Nasrallah warned that the West Bank faces even more severe attacks in the coming period, with the expansion of targeted areas by both the Israeli military and settlers.
He emphasised the heightened risks for Palestinian farmers during the upcoming olive harvest season, a time that is increasingly becoming a period of resistance. Last year’s olive harvest was particularly bloody, with several Palestinians killed by settlers while working in their olive groves, he said.
Both Palestinian and Israeli statistics indicate a sharp increase in Israeli aggression against the West Bank, with more than 130 new settler outposts established with support from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. This is in addition to the dozens of settlements and thousands of settlement units announced by the Israeli government over the past year, both in the West Bank and Occupied Jerusalem.
Murad Shtayyeh, director of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Committee in the northern West Bank, explained that since Smotrich took office, he has been pushing through decisions aimed at seizing more Palestinian land and tightening restrictions on the Palestinian population.
Smotrichholds two key positions in the Israeli government as minister of finance and head of the Civil Administration, which controls construction and urban expansion in Area C (approximately 61 per cent of the West Bank), and he has been actively promoting settlement expansion and funding.
Shtayyehsaid that Smotrich has introduced the idea of “buffer zones” to seize large areas of Palestinian land, particularly near settlements. These zones prevent Palestinians from accessing theirland, facilitating its eventual transfer to settlers.
Smotrich began implementing these buffer zones after 7 October, starting in the northern West Bank. Shtayyeh’s team has documented the seizure of 31 dunams (approximately 7.7 acres) of land from the village of Deir Istiya in the Salfit Governorate, which is part of these buffer zone areas. This military order targets lands close to the settlement of Revava.
He explained that additional military orders have been issued to seize around 18 dunams of land in the villages of Madama, Burin, and Asira Al-Qibliya to build a military security road surrounding the settlement of Yitzhar. This could lead to the confiscation of hundreds of additional dunams of land.
Another military order was issued to prevent construction on 5,000 dunams of land north of Nablus, part of which falls within Area A and the rest in Area B. Additionally, eight dunams of land were seized in the village of Beit Lid to construct a road serving the settlement of Einav. According to Shtayyeh, buffer zones are currently concentrated in the northern West Bank, with a significant number of military-designated zones also declared in the south.
He said that Israel is exploiting the world’s focus on Gaza to push through numerous settlement projects on the West Bank, including building more outposts between existing settlements to connect them and expand settler control. He explained that these outposts are often established under the guise of “pastoral settlements,” enabling settlers to occupy more land, particularly in strategic areas that link settlements together.
This is part of Israel’s broader strategy to fragment the West Bank into isolated cantons and confiscate land under various pretexts, such as declaring it state land or issuing military orders to expand settlements. Thousands of dunams have already been seized under these measures, especially in the Jordan Valley, with the policy now extending to Tulkarm, Nablus, and Salfit, as well as parts of the Qalqilya Governorate.
Shtayyeh warned that the West Bank, particularly Area C, has seen a dangerous shift in settlement expansion due to new laws passed by the Israeli Knesset. These laws have accelerated the settlement approval process, reducing the previous four-stage procedure to just two stages. This enables settlements to expand more quickly, particularly in strategic locations aimed at isolating the northern West Bank from its central and southern regions.
Israel is also working to divide Palestinian governorates by installing military gates at the entrances of villages along major roads, including in Nablus and eastern Qalqilya. Military gates have been installed at these locations, as well as in villages in Salfit.
* A version of this article appears in print in the 10 October, 2024 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
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