Key Developments (September 26-29)
Israeli forces conducted raids across the West Bank this week, arresting and injuring dozens of Palestinians. On Tuesday September 26th, Israeli forces arrested three Palestinians from the Ramallah-area town of Silwad. According to local reports, the three men had recently been arrested by the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF) and were arrested by Israel shortly after being released from PA jails.
On Wednesday September 27th, armed confrontations broke out as the Israeli army invaded Tubas in the northern Jordan Valley. The Tubas Brigade said its fires engaged in “heavy confrontations” with the army. Two Palestinians were reportedly arrested, and were identified by local media as Palestinians, Majd Abu Siyaj and Amjad Daraghmeh. In the city of Tulkarem, in the northwestern West Bank, the Tulkarem brigade said its fighters targeted Israeli special forces with gunfire after the forces “infiltrated” the Nur Shams refugee camp.
On Thursday September 28th armed clashes broke out during an Israeli raid on the Nablus-area Balata refugee camp, with local reports indicating the deployment of an Israeli suicide drone, which reportedly exploded in the sky over the camp. Earlier this month two Palestinian fighters were assassinated in the Jenin refugee camp with an Israeli military “suicide drone”. During the raid on Nablus at least three Palestinians were arrested, including one from the Balata refugee camp. Confrontations were also reported in the town of Yabas, Jenin, with local media reporting dozens of cases of suffocation after Israeli forces used tear gas, among other weapons, to target the community during the raid. At least two Palestinians were shot and injured with live ammunition during confrontations that broke out in the town of Beit Ummar.
On Friday, September 29th, a Palestinian was shot and critically injured in the eye with a rubber-coated steel bullet fired by Israeli forces during a military raid on the Qalandia refugee camp in the central West Bank. Another Palestinian was injured when Israeli forces opened fire on a car near the Ramallah-area town of al-Bireh. Israeli forces also arrested three Palestinians, including a 17-year-old during a raid on the Jericho-area town of al-Auja.
Over a dozen operations carried out by resistance groups and individual actors were reported this week in the West Bank. On Tuesday, September 26th, Palestinian fighters claimed responsibility for opening fire on the Salem checkpoint in the Jenin area, the Ramallah-area illegal Shiloh settlement, the Shweika, Avnei Heretz, and Nitzanei Oz checkpoints in Tulkarem, and the Hamra checkpoint in the Jordan Valley. Fighters also planted an explosive device near a military tower in the Hebron-area town of Beit Ummar, which has been witnessing increased confrontations and armed resistance activity in recent weeks. Over the course of the rest of the week, the following operations were also reported: resistance fighters opened fire on the Taybeh military checkpoint near Tulkarem; Molotov cocktails were thrown toward an Israeli military tower in Qalqiliya; fighters opened fire towards the Huwwara military checkpoint; fighters opened fire towards the Merav settlement.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said in a statement that the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) was “obstructing lawyer visits” to hunger-striking prisoner Kayed al-Fasfous. On September 28th, Fasfous marked his 56th day on hunger strike to protest his administrative detention. That day, Israeli forces transferred him from the Asqalan prison to the infamous Ramle prison clinic, which is notorious for its practices of medical neglect against sick and hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners. Hunger-striking prisoner Khader Adnan died in the Ramleh prison clinic earlier this year in May, while Nasser Abu Hmeid, a Palestinian prisoner with cancer, died in the same clinic in December 2022. PPS said in a statement that it was concerned over “significant escalating risks to his [Fasfous’] life,” and warned that tactics being used against Fasfous are similar to that of Khader Adnan’s case.
Fasfous was arrested and placed under administrative detention in May. This is his third hunger strike, including a 131-day long strike in 2021. He has four brothers who are also currently in administrative detention. Fasfous, like many prisoners who are subjected to Israel’s arbitrary arrest and detention system, has been in prison on and off for seven years since 2007. This week,prisoners in the Naqab prison collectively began refusing meals in solidarity with Fasfous.
Important Figures:
- An estimated 243 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the start of the year
- Israel has arrested more than 135,000 Palestinians since the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000, according to local prisoners rights groups
