West Bank Dispatch: Israeli settlers ramp up attacks with impunity

Key Developments (August 10- August 14)

• Israeli forces and authorities continue the mass-scale assault on Palestinian refugee camps, targeting youth and civilians in a military tactic known as “shock and awe.” On Friday, August 11, Israeli forces invaded Tulkarem refugee camp and killed Mahmoud Jihad Jarad, 23 years old. According to the Ministry of Health, seven others were injured by Israeli forces. 
• On Friday morning, Israeli police reported a drive-by-shooting towards the illegal settlement of Dotan, west of Jenin, took place. No injuries were reported. Last year, as Israeli extrajudicial assassinations increased, at the peak of Israel’s Operation Break the Wave, Palestinian resistance groups vowed that Palestinian streets in the West Bank would no longer feel safe for illegal Israeli settlers. As a result, Palestinian shootings towards settlements and settlers also increased this year. 

• Israeli settler assaults on Palestinian villages and towns continued, with olive groves attacked and trees uprooted. On Saturday, August 12, Palestinian civilian vehicles were attacked by Israeli settlers in the town of Turmus Ayya in Ramallah. This comes amid an increase in attacks on Palestinians by armed settlers. Turmus Ayya was also one of the towns that fell victim of Israeli settler mass arson attacks this year and last year. The attacks that happened earlier last June in the West Bank resulted in at least one Palestinian killed and caused damages to properties, structures, and human lives, including children and minors. Israeli settlers are rarely ever held accountable, and Israeli authorities sanctioned the attacks by deploying soldiers to provide protection for settlers. 

• On Sunday morning, Israeli settlers continued their assault on Palestinians, this time attacking and destroying the property of a Palestinian school in Wadi Seeq, east of Ramallah. Also on Sunday, almost 105 Israeli settlers invaded Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound as a form of provocation and imposition of presence and domination in the Old City. This comes after Israeli authorities as well as settlers attacked Palestinian and international worshippers during Muslim and Christian holy days of worship. The attacks were condemned by UN representatives, global leaders, human rights organizations, and leading activists, yet no accountability followed.

• Palestinians are facing an alarming water crisis, mainly due to Israeli occupation and water theft by Israeli national companies (Mekorot) and settler expansion, the deputy director of the Palestinian hydrology group said. This comes in tandem with continued Israeli incursions on Palestinian cities, towns, and villages. According to human rights groups and data analysis, Israelis use almost three times as much water as Palestinians. Meantime, this year, Palestinian cities and towns are reporting increased cuts on water and depletion of water tanks.

• Across the West Bank, Palestinians also marked the first anniversary of the killing of Ibrahim al-Nabulsi through cultural activities such as painting his murals as well as passing prayer beads in his honor in the Old City of Nablus. Al-Nabulsi was the 18-year-old extra-judicially assassinated on August 9th last year, marking a turn in current Palestinian history towards armed resistance. 

• Israeli Prison Services and authorities escalate physical mistreatment and abuses against Palestinian detainees. The Palestinian detainees in Negev prison have declared a state of emergency amid a continued assault by Israeli forces. On Sunday, armed Israeli forces, in specific Israeli Special Repression Units (Yamaz, Dror, and Masada) raided section 26 in Negev Prison and forcibly moved detainees and ransacked their rooms violently according to the Office of Prisoners Affairs. Although the prison was closed in 1995 under the Oslo Accords, it was re-opened by Israel in 2002. Similar attacks in the past have resulted in the injury of dozens of Palestinian detainees, who are denied medical care afterwards. This year marks an intensified and vengeful nature of attacks amid international impunity for Israeli forces and authorities. In February of this year, Ahmad Abu Ali, 49, was found dead in Negev Prison due to medical negligence. Abu Ali had only two sentences left to his 12-year sentence. There are more than 600 Palestinian detainees who suffer from illnesses and are being denied proper treatment, of those, 20 have cancer, including the notable thinker, writer, and political pioneer on understanding prisoner realities, Walid Daqqa, who is being denied treatment despite having fulfilled his original sentence of almost three decades.
• Palestinian political captives in Israeli prisons continue an escalation of disobedience practices. As of Friday, the number of Palestinian political detainees on hunger strike to protest against being held without trial or charge rose to 13. This comes after Israel deliberately and wilfully killed hunger striker and political activist Khader Adnan, still withholding his corpse and denying his family burial along with 137 others. If the demands of hunger strikes are not met, then political detainees are preparing to launch a mass hunger strike according to Qadura Faris, the director of the Palestinian Prisoners Society. 

Key Figures

• Since January, 224 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers, including military, police, and armed settlers. This is the most lethal year for Palestinians since the UN began documenting fatalities in 2004-05. 

• There are almost 5,000 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons. With almost 1,600 administrative detention orders issued, this year also marked the highest record of administrative detention cases since the Second Intifada in 2001. Of those being held without trial or charge are 19 minors, according to the Palestinian center for detainee research. 

• Israeli forces have arrested more than 4,400 Palestinians since the start of the year. That averages to 137 Palestinians per week.