Israeli Attacks Escalate in the West Bank
Featured image: Gush Etzion junction after the Palestinian resistance operation. Source: Palestine Chronicle.
Israel has continued to demolish homes in the Tulkarm refugee camp as the number of displaced Palestinians rises to more than 40,000 since the military operation in the occupied West Bank began in January. Tulkarm’s governor Abdullah Kamil told Reuters that demolitions have surged in recent weeks with 106 homes and 104 other buildings destroyed Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps.
This demolitions’ escalation is linked to the plan approved by the Israeli government in May, of constructing 22 new illegal settlements in the West Bank, the largest expansion since the Oslo Agreements. Along with these demolitions, raids by the Israeli troops and attacks by settlers also intensified along this week.
One Palestinian man was shot and killed on Thursday morning, 10th of July, in the town of Rummanah, Jenin. The Israeli forces shot him and afterwards stolen the body. The Israeli troops also detained his sons. This murder took place amidst this escalation of demolitions and raids by the Israeli forces:
On this same Thursday Israeli settlers attacked the village of Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron and injured a Palestinian woman. They also destroyed a water pipeline between the villages of Aqraba and Majdal Bani Fadel, south of Nablus.
The other murders took place on Friday, 11th of July, in Sinjil, north of Ramallah, were settlers attacked and beaten to death two Palestinians. At least other 40 Palestinians were injured.
After the attacks, Hamas called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up and resist the settlers’ terror. There is an increasing unrest and the Israeli army announced a deployment of two additional battalions to this area. Settler groups reportedly blocked medical teams from reaching wounded young men trapped in the forests surrounding the town.
On this same Friday the settlers and Israeli military carried out raids across the central and southern West Bank. In the town of Al-Minya, east of Bethlehem, Israeli settlers attacked residents under the protection of Israeli forces. The army fired tear gas at Palestinians, causing several cases of suffocation. In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron (Al-Khalil), settlers stormed Palestinian homes and beat residents, injuring two young men, according to the Red Crescent. According to local sources, over 2,150 settler attacks took place in the West Bank so far this year.
The Palestinian resistance is confronting these continuous aggressions. On Monday a soldier was injured by Palestinian combatants in Nablus:
In a shooting and stabbing operation near the Gush Etzion junction, north of Hebron City, two Israeli military personnel were eliminated and multiple more were wounded by Palestinian resistance combatants:
