The Palestinian Authority health ministry said Dec. 1 that the Israeli armed forces killed four Palestinians in an air-strike on the village of Siir, in Jenin district of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that day that Israeli forces were “preventing our teams from reaching the bombing site,” declaring it a “closed military zone.” (TNA) Two days later, an Israel Defense Forces drone strike near the village of Aqaba in the Jordan Valley left two dead. The IDF again reportedly prevented ambulances from reaching the site. (JNS)
Two days after that, Dec. 5, fire-fights erupted in Jenin as PA security forces responded to the theft of two of their vehicles. A PA statement said “a group of outlaws opened fire on the headquarters of the security services” and stole the two vehicles. Despite the designation of “outlaws,” the vehicles were reportedly paraded through the streets by a band flying the flags of Islamic Jihad and Hamas. (ToI)
This all comes a week after the IDF carried out raids in towns and villages across the West Bank, raids, detaining 15 Palestinians including a child. (TNA)
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) has meanwhile introduced legislation to bar use of the term “West Bank” by the US government in favor of the Israeli designation “Judea & Samaria.” Dubbed the “Retiring Egregious Confusion Over the Genuine Name of Israel’s Zone of Influence by Necessitating Government-use of Judea & Samaria (RECOGNIZING Judea & Samaria) Act,” the bill would require all official US documents and materials “to use the historically accurate term ‘Judea and Samaria,'” according to a statement from is office. “The Jewish people’s legal and historic rights to Judea and Samaria go back thousands of years. The US should stop using the politically charged term West Bank to refer to the biblical heartland of Israel.” (JP)
The bill unequivocally demonstrates support by the incoming Trump team for Israel’s annexationist agenda on the West Bank, which is actually already in progress.
Cotton has also sought to impeach President Biden over the “pause” the White House has imposed on some arms shipments to Israel, and sent a threatening letter to the International Criminal Court prosecutor over the warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Photo: delayed gratification via New Jewish Resistance
Violence spreads across West Bank
Reprisal attacks by settlers are reported across the West Bank after three Israelis were killed in a shooting attack on a bus and other vehicles near al-Funduq in the north of the territory. (CNN, BBC News)
Also Jan. 6, it was announced that te Israeli government is seeking to annex land from the Palestinian village of Jaba, northeast of Jerusalem, to the jurisdiction of Geva Binyamin settlement for contruction of a new road to facilitate growth of te settlement. (WAFA)
In one particularly egregious settler attack last month, a mosque was set on fire and spray-painted with the words “Death to Arabs” in Hebrew at the village of Marda.
Since the start of the war on Gaza, at least 803 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces or settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. (Al Jazeera)
A Palestinian Autority officer was also killed Dec. 22 battling militants of the Jenin Brigades near the refugee camp. (Al Arabiya, Al Jazeera)
The US State Department announced sanctions in late November against several individuals and organizations for their alleged targeting of civilians amid Israeli settler encroachment on Palestinian lands on the West Bank. (Jurist)
IDF, PA besiege and raid Jenin hospitals
Hours after President Donald Trump rescinded US sanctions on far-right settler groups and individuals accused of involvement in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military said it had launched a “significant” operation in the territory. (NBC)
Israeli forces Jan. 22 continued besieging and attacking two Jenin hospitals for a second consecutive day since the launch of a major assault on the northern West Bank city, as Palestinian Authority forces stormed a third hospital.
Medical teams attempting to provide care have come under direct Israeli fire, while paramedics have been obstructed from reaching the dead and wounded, who remain strewn across the streets.
Israeli forces have killed at least 10 Palestinians and wounded 40 since the attack began on Tuesday morning, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. (MEE)
Israeli troops to stay in Jenin
Israeli forces will maintain their presence in the Jenin refugee camp following a large-scale raid launched last week, Defense Minister Israel Katz announced Jan. 29. (TML)
That same day, an Israeli air-strike on the northern West Bank village of Tamoun killed at least 10 people. (Asharq Al Awsat)
Israel ramps up violence in occupied West Bank
While the ceasefire in Gaza is largely holding, Israeli forces and settlers are ramping up their violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, forcibly displacing more than 30,000 people and severely restricting access to crucial services, including healthcare. Much of the destruction is part of a new operation launched by the Israeli military last month, just as the Hamas-Israel ceasefire came into effect.
The campaign started in the Jenin refugee camp and has moved north to the city of Tulkarm. Israel says it is acting to “defeat terrorism,” but air-strikes and “controlled detonations” have destroyed homes, forcing people to flee, and knocked out infrastructure. An estimated 70 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since the operation began, and settlers have also been involved in attacks on Palestinians. Some settler violence has involved masked men setting homes and cars on fire. Among the targets have been villages that are home to Palestinian prisoners released as part of the Gaza deal. On top of that, the UN reports a broader pattern of escalating settler attacks against Palestinian Bedouin and herder communities. (TNH)