Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Over the past month, the world’s attention has focused almost exclusively on what is often described as the war between Israel and Hamas.
More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, which has been besieged since October 7 by violent aerial and artillery bombardments – more than 4,000 children and 2,550 women.
Some 24,800 other people, including 10,000 children, were injured and 1.5 million people – around 60 percent of the population – were forcibly displaced from their homes in the hope of escaping death, many of them being killed while sheltering in hospitals, schools and refugee camps. .
But in addition to attacks on the Gaza Strip, Israel and Israeli settlers have simultaneously intensified attacks on Palestinians beyond the enclave.
Here’s what you need to know about it:
Intensified killings
During Israel’s 56-year military occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israeli forces regularly opened fire on unarmed Palestinians in daily raids and clashes.
The situation on the ground was already tense in these regions well before October 7. In fact, the United Nations had declared 2022 as the “deadliest” year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2006. Israeli forces have killed 170 Palestinians in these areas. areas in 2022, including more than 30 children, while more than 9,000 others were injured.
The number of Palestinians killed in 2023 has already far exceeded that of last year.
Since January 1, Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 371 people in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Nearly half of them – 163 people – have been killed in the past month. At least 43 of them were children.
More than 2,300 other people have been injured in the past month, including at least 244 children, more than half during protests against the bombing of Gaza.
Settler attacks and forced displacement
Deadly attacks by Israeli citizens living in hundreds of fortified illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem have increased significantly since October 7.
Some 700,000 settlers live in and around Palestinian neighborhoods and towns under heavy protection. The vast majority of illegal Israeli settlements have been built entirely or partially on private Palestinian land.
Settlers, many of them armed, have shot dead at least eight Palestinians in these areas over the past month. They attack Palestinian villages daily, attacking residents and their properties, and have injured at least 64 people during the same period.
Since October 7, the UN has recorded 202 settler attacks against Palestinians, with 28 incidents resulting in Palestinian casualties, 141 incidents resulting in property damage, and 33 incidents resulting in both casualties and property damage.
“This reflects a daily average of seven incidents, compared to three since the start of the year,” the UN said. “More than a third of these incidents included threats with firearms, including shootings.” The UN noted that “in almost half of all incidents, Israeli forces accompanied or actively supported the attackers.”
The increase in settler violence since October 7 has directly led to the forced displacement of at least 905 Palestinians from their homes, including in the South Hebron Hills and Wadi al-Seeq, near Ramallah.
According to the UN, this figure includes 111 households and 356 children.
On October 13, days after the Hamas attack, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir began distributing thousands of assault rifles to Israelis, with priority given to settlers in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. -East, and to Israelis living alongside Palestinians in “mixed towns” in Israel, such as Lydda and Ramle.
The last killing of a Palestinian by settlers took place on October 29, when settlers shot dead Bilal Saleh, 40, while he was harvesting olive trees on his land in the village of al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus.
In early October, settlers attacked the village of Qusra, also in Nablus, killing three residents. The next day, during their funeral, settlers attacked the village again, killing three more Palestinians, including a father and his son.
Arrests and conditions of prisoners
Another major development since October 7 is the sharp increase in the number of Palestinians arrested by Israeli forces. In two weeks, Israel has more than doubled the number of Palestinians detained. Around 3,200 Palestinian workers from Gaza who were arrested in Israel at the start of the war were released by Israel last week.
Many of those already in prisons or recently detained were attacked by Israeli forces, according to testimonies from prisoners and rights groups. At least two prisoners have died in Israeli custody shortly after being arrested since October 7. A third, a Palestinian worker from Gaza suffering from cancer, was announced dead on Monday by the Wafa news agency.
“Prisoners are currently suffering the harshest beatings and torture in Israeli prisons,” Qadura Fares, » the head of the Palestinian Prisoners Society told Al Jazeera.
“Most often, six or seven guards beat a prisoner all over the body, using sticks, handcuffs, boots – whatever they have. Some prisoners suffered broken bones and teeth,” he said.
“The arrest campaign is part of Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. These arrests are not specific to people suspected of posing security threats. It is obvious that this is an act of revenge,” Fares said.
Several videos have also been released in recent weeks showing Israeli soldiers beating, stomping, mistreating and humiliating detained Palestinians who were blindfolded, handcuffed and stripped of their clothing, partially or entirely. Many social media users said the scenes were reminiscent of torture inflicted by US forces in Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison in 2003.
Policies against Palestinians in Israel
Palestinians in Israel, many of whom work and live alongside Israelis, face a crackdown on the slightest expressions of solidarity with Gaza, with residents arrested, fired from their jobs and suspended from universities.
“If someone posts a line from the Quran or a message of prayer for Gaza, they are accused of incitement and reported to the police, often by their own colleagues,” Fida Shehadeh, a former member of the municipality of Lydda. “People are scared.”
On October 19, Israeli police chief Kobi Shabtai threatened to expel Palestinians living in Israel to Gaza because they identified with the rest of their population.
Shehadeh, who is currently part of a coalition of emergency lawyers in Lydda and Ramle, said at least 172 Palestinians in Israel have been arrested since October 7, including Nazareth-based singer and popular icon Dalal Abu Amneh – on a Facebook post.
“They (Israel) introduced an amendment to the labor law to prevent Palestinians fired from their jobs because of social media posts from receiving their end-of-service benefits,” Shehadeh said.
The other major problem plaguing Palestinians in Israel is the proliferation of weapons among Israeli civilians.
“We now live in an environment filled with weapons. I’m sitting in a playground with my nephew while I’m talking to you and there’s an Israeli woman sitting with an M16 rifle,” Shehadeh told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli authorities have set up premises – through the police and the army – so that Israelis can easily access weapons. You take your gun and leave – the state gives it to you and you have to return it at the end of the day,” she explained.
According to Shehadeh, these rooms have “already been installed in all the “mixed cities” like Lydda, but also in Nahariya and Netanya – places where Palestinians work.
Palestinian Authority
The government in the occupied West Bank had no influence in calling for an end to Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip, said Ramallah-based analyst Ismat Mansour.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) is unpopular among Palestinians and widely seen as corrupt and a collaborative partner with Israel on security issues, which includes arresting Palestinians for dissent or any resistance activity.
The AP has already indicated that it is discussing possible scenarios for a post-Hamas Gaza with the United States.
“The United States is trying to create a new post-war situation by thinking that Israel will succeed in eradicating Hamas from the Gaza Strip,” Mansour said, referring to the meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken with PA President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday.
“He is banking on a political vacuum and wants to preempt it according to his own interests in the region.”
Although the Palestinian Authority condemns the war in Gaza on paper and calls for it to end, its acquiescence to the United States can only be seen as complicity with what the United States and Israel want, Mansour said.
However, Israeli aggression, which is not directed against Hamas but against the entire Palestinian people, is not yet over, he maintained.
“In the event that Hamas no longer rules Gaza, that does not mean that Hamas as a movement will disappear. Any plan for the future of the Gaza Strip must take into account the presence of Hamas and its influence, as well as the role it can play,” he noted, asserting that Hamas as a movement cannot can be overwritten.
“The role of the PA is supposed to be to defend the Palestinian people,” Mansour said. “Unfortunately, it has only acted as a normalizing partner with Israel and is content to be a mere observer, which is a shameful position. »
