Ras Ain al-Auja was one of the largest Palestinian Bedouin villages in the West Bank. Now most of its 120 families have been forcibly displaced by state-backed Israeli settlers after nonstop attacks. Residents are calling it “another Nakba.”
As several Western nations announce their recognition of a Palestinian state ahead of an upcoming UN General Assembly vote, Israel is accelerating its illegal annexation measures of the occupied West Bank to render a Palestinian state impossible.
Six months since Israel’s expanded military assault on the refugee camps of Jenin and Tulkarem in the northern West Bank, over 42,000 Palestinian refugees remain forcibly displaced and have no stable access to food, water, or shelter.
The Palestinians of Ras Ain al-Ouja are the latest Bedouin community targeted for expulsion by Israel. They are being forced out through violent settler harassment as part of Israel’s plan to annex most of the West Bank.
The brutal torture and abuse Nael Barghouti has faced since October 7 mirrors the situation of all Palestinian detainees, and his case shows that Israel will re-arrest Palestinians it releases in any potential prisoner swap, without charge or trial.