Key Developments May 16 – May 22
- On Monday morning, May 22, Israeli special operations units and the military invaded Balata refugee camp in Nablus city, killing three men and injuring six others, while armed confrontation between the camp’s youth and the army ensued. By dawn, more than 400 Israeli soldiers had invaded Balata, while entry and exit points to the camp were blocked off by the Israeli army. Medical personnel and ambulances were denied access to the injured in the camp despite the fact that many Palestinians sustained critical wounds during the raid. The Israeli army killed three youth who confronted the invasion, claiming to have detonated an explosive-making factory in Balata refugee camp. According to local reporters on the ground and documentation from families, however, civilian homes were also ransacked and destroyed in the invasion. Among the slain were Fathi Abu Rezeq, 30, Abdallah Yousef Abu Hamdan, 24, and Mohammad Abu Zaytoun, 32. Five others, Nael, Noor, Ahmad, Fawzi and Yazan Oweis, were detained and taken to military interrogation. The city of Nablus declared a general strike in mourning over the three slain men, exempting only schools.
- Also on Monday morning, Israeli settlers and armed forces continued invasions of Jerusalem and its non-Jewish holy sites, as at least 100 settlers escorted by 15 police officers stormed the al-Aqsa compound. This raid comes following the Flag March in Jerusalem on May 18, when Israeli settlers and police shut down the Old City and its surrounding areas to facilitate the march. Palestinian families were forced to remain inside their homes due to the attacks by settler youth, which included harassment, cursing, beatings, throwing glass bottles, and vandalizing private property as they roamed the Old City.
- Israeli forces continue to intensify a coordinated and targeted attack on Palestinian refugee camps. On May 18, Israeli forces used children as human shields during a military invasion on the Aqbat Jabr refugee camp near Jericho. This signals behaviors and practices similar to those witnessed during the destructive Israeli invasion of the West Bank during the early 2000s, Operation Defensive Shield.
- On Saturday, May 20, Palestinian families of university students detained by the Palestinian Authority (PA) rallied for the release of their children, including at least six university students from the Polytechnic school in Hebron and al-Najah University in Nablus. Last year was one of the worst years of political detainment for youth activists and university students in the West Bank, according to the human rights organization, Lawyers for Justice. In past months, the PA has intensified detention campaigns of opposition members, which have included invasions of civilian homes and assaulting the families of those targeted for arrest. In 2021, PA security service officers beat prominent Palestinian critic of the PA Nizar Banat to death.
- The health of imprisoned Palestinian writer, story-teller, and intellectual Walid Daqqa has continued to deteriorate in Ramleh prison’s clinic, forcing Israeli authorities to move him to Asaf Harofeh Medical center on Monday morning. Daqqa has been imprisoned by Israel since 1986. Daqqa was diagnosed with a rare form of bone marrow cancer last year, and his right lung was partially removed last Wednesday. Israeli authorities continue to deny him release or proper healthcare. This comes 20 days after the martyrdom of Palestinian prisoner Khader Adnan while on hunger strike in Ramleh prison’s clinic.
- On Thursday, May 18, the Old City of Jerusalem and its neighboring areas were closed down to make way for the annual settler Flag March. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem were placed under curfew and were made to close down their shops by 3 p.m. on Thursday, while settler lynch mobs roamed through the city and injured Palestinians. Read more here for a full report by Mondoweiss Senior Palestine Correspondent Mariam Barghouti.
Mondoweiss highlights
The Flag March is part of the Zionist war on Jerusalem, by Mariam Barghouti
The people of “the camp,” by Yumna Patel
The annual Flag March is a sign of Israeli weakness and colonial insecurity, by Ahmed Abu Artema
“Collateral damage”: the human cost of Israel’s recent assault on Gaza, Tareq S. Hajjaj
Key Figures
- 26 Palestinian minors and children were killed since the beginning of the year, bringing the number of children killed since the Unity Uprising to 142 children. Minors and children constitute an average of 20% of Israeli killings in the West Bank.
- By May 18, at least five children have been used as human shields by Israeli forces.
