The West Bank...

West Bank under fire: Occupation forces new families to flee Tulkarm and Jenin


Local sources said that 200 families were displaced from their homes in Tulkarm camp during the past 24 hours, due to the escalation of the occupation's aggression and threats to residents that they should leave their homes and not return to them.

Palestinians were wounded by Israeli occupation forces on Monday during clashes and clashes in Nablus and Hebron, while Israeli forces raided various areas in the occupied West Bank, carried out large-scale house raids and launched a campaign of arrests targeting a number of Palestinians.


The Israeli occupation forces continue their aggression against the city of Tulkarm and its camp for the 50th consecutive day, and for the 37th day on the Nur Shams camp, amid an unprecedented escalation, including intensive raids on houses, forcing Palestinians to leave, burning and bombing others.

The occupation forces escalated their attacks on the residents of Tulkarm camp, and threatened the remaining families in Qaqoun neighborhood with the need to leave, in continuation of its policy of forced displacement against the camp's residents.

Local sources said that 200 families were displaced from their homes in Tulkarm camp during the past 24 hours, due to the escalation of occupation aggression and threats to residents that they should leave their homes and not return to them.


The occupation forces continued to raid houses and shops inside Tulkarm camp, search them, vandalize and steal their contents, and turn a number of them into military barracks.

The Israeli army continues its aggression against the city and camp of Jenin for the 56th consecutive day, amid bulldozing, burning houses, and turning others into military barracks.

The occupation forces continued to burn houses in Jenin camp, where they burned a number of houses, known by their owners: Samir al-Nursi on Freedom Theater Street, while foot forces deployed in the main square of the camp, amid the firing of lighting bombs in the vicinity of Zahra School.


The occupation forces closed the entrance to Jenin Government Hospital with earth berms, and continue their military movements around the camp, and on several streets in the city.

Israeli tanks and armored vehicles are stationed around the camp, while bulldozers continue to bulldoze streets and expand others to enter military vehicles.

The occupation forces completely demolished about 120 houses inside the lanes and alleys of the camp, and damaged dozens of houses, after displacing about 20,000 residents of the camp.

In addition, the occupation forces arrested a child in the Wadi al-Samn area south of Hebron, and Saad Qarish after raiding his house in the city of Yatta.
A military force stormed the city of Yatta, raiding a number of houses, raiding a shop and smashing its contents.

In Bethlehem, Israeli forces arrested three freed prisoners after raiding their homes: Laith Nidal Soman, Ali Khaled Zawahira and Adi Samer Zawahira.

Israeli forces arrested the student at Birzeit University in Ramallah, Qais Abu Sundus, and Ahmed Osama Alyan and Abdul Qader Makhlouf after raiding their homes in Jalazone camp north of Ramallah.

18:41
Israeli special force arrests brothers Jihad and Iyad Kalbouna from their home inside the popular housing neighborhood east of Nablus
17:46
Israeli tanks move from the entrance to Jenin camp towards Haifa Street west of the city
17:23
Clashes break out between residents and occupation forces in Beita town south of Nablus
16:34
Occupation forces fire stun grenades at Shweika roundabout in Tulkarm
16:12
Injuries during clashes with Israeli forces in Al-Fawwar camp
15:05
Reinforcements of the occupation forces storm Tulkarm camp in conjunction with the continuation of aggression for more than a month and a half
13:07
Occupation forces storm Al-Fawwar camp south of Hebron


12:30
Occupation threatens to seize 120 dunums of land in Gilbon north of Jenin
The Israeli occupation forces were notified of the seizure of about 120 dunums of land in the town of Gilbon, north of Jenin.
Gilbon Mayor Ibrahim Abu al-Rab said on Monday that an Israeli army force had stormed the town and notified of the seizure of about 120 dunums of its territory in the southern region.

The land was owned by the townspeople and had been planted with olive trees for more than 50 years.

12:06
The number of female prisoners in Israeli prisons rose to 26
The Prisoners Club said that the Israeli occupation authorities continue to escalate the targeting of women through systematic arrests.

The Prisoners Club added in a statement on Monday that the total number of female prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons rose during March to 26 after recording 14 cases of arrest among women during this month, including three sisters from Hebron, while the occupation kept eight of them arrested.
Most of them are being held in Damon prison. Among them is a prisoner from Gaza, Siham Abu Salem, a child, a three-month pregnant prisoner, three administrative detainees, and two journalists. Among the prisoners is a prisoner with cancer. Two prisoners remain detained since before October 7, the occupation refuses to include them in exchange deals concluded between the occupation and the Palestinian resistance.

11:16
Number of displaced people from Jenin camp rises to 21,000
The Israeli occupation continued its aggression on Jenin city and camp for the 56th consecutive day, amid bulldozing, burning houses, and turning others into military barracks.
The occupation forces continue to push military reinforcements to Jenin camp and nearby neighborhoods in Jenin city since the morning hours, accompanied by water tanks, amid the flight of warplanes over the city.

The number of displaced people from the camp has risen to 21,000, 25% of the population of Jenin is in a state of displacement, and the extent of damage due to the aggression on the city of Jenin is very enormous, especially economically.

Bi-Weekly Brief: March 17, 2025

Israel deploys water and starvation as weapons as it resumes its genocidal campaign

What a way to negotiate!  Rather than engaging in talks about how to implement Phase II of the ‘temporary ceasefire’ agreement that calls for the return of the remaining 59 or so hostages and the full removal of Israeli troops from Gaza, Israel has demanded that Hamas immediately release all the hostages in an ‘extension’ of Phase I while its troops remain in place. 

 

When Hamas refused to accept these terms, Netanyahu on March 2 announced it had barred the entry into Gaza of all humanitarian aid until Hamas acceded to Israel’s demands.  Former National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir was delighted: “This policy should remain in place until the last hostage returns.  Now is the time to open the gates of hell, cut electricity and water, and resume the war.”  Four days later, President Trump added his own diplomatic flourish with a post on Truth Social:  “Shalom Hamas means Hello and Goodbye - You can choose. Release all of the Hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is OVER for you…. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW, OR THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY LATER!”

 

When these threats and the resumption of airstrikes failed to move Hamas which insisted on sticking to the original ceasefire agreement, Israel further ratcheted up the pressure by announcing on March 9 that not only was it blocking the entry of trucked food, fuel and water, but it was cutting off the entire electricity supplyto the Gaza Strip which would cause Gaza’s sole remaining desalination plant and wastewater treatment plant to cease functioning.  If, before the ceasefire took effect on January 19, Gaza’s residents had for daily use the per capita equivalent of the amount of water needed for a single toilet flush, soon they would have nothing but seawater to drink.   Five days later, Hamas offered to release an American-Israeli citizen, and return the bodies of four other dual nationals  to induce Israel to enter Phase II negotiations.  But Israel was having none of it and called the Hamas offer “manipulation” and “psychological warfare” while continuing to use snipers and drones against Palestinians.  It has killed at least 150 Gaza residents since the ‘ceasefire’ began, according to Euro-Med Monitor.  Nine people including three journalists were killed by a drone on March 15. 

 

Both Netanyahu and Trump have summarily rejected the Egyptian plan for rebuilding Gaza which was endorsed by Arab leaders at an emergency summit in Cairo on March 4.  The $53 billion, three-phased plan focuses on the reconstruction of Gaza under the administration of a committee of technocrats, while residents remain within the Gaza Strip.  As a sweetener for Netanyahu, the plan includes security corridors and a wide ‘buffer zone’ all along Gaza’s perimeter boundary with Israel. 

 

Instead of giving the plan serious consideration, the White House and Israel are reportedly discussing setting up a fund to expedite the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, possibly by inducing Sudan, Somalia or Somaliland to take in two million Palestinian refugees.  Finance Minister Smotrich announced  on March 9 that Israel would be establishing a ‘Migration Directorate’ to oversee the expulsion of Palestinians, and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman stated that the “only solution for the Gaza Strip is to empty it of Gazans” and that “God has sent us the US administration, and it is clearly telling us – it’s time to inherit the land.”  She seemed undeterred by the fact that Israel has subjected that particular piece of land to such environmental destruction that it has been accused of committing ecocide.   With pumping stations and sewage treatment plants again knocked out by Israel’s ban of electricity and fuel supplies,  parts of northern Gaza are now flooded with sewage, raising fears that Gaza’s sole aquifer is being irreversibly damaged. 

 

While Palestinians endure a miserable Ramadan under total siege conditions, some unusual dynamics have been taking place.  Adam Boehler, nominated to be Trump’s Envoy for Hostage Affairs who had been Jared Kushner’s college roommate, caused consternation in Israel when he opened a back channel directly with Hamas and held what he called “very productive” discussions.  Hamas, he said, agreed to a five-to-ten-year truce during which time it would lay down all weapons and the US could help ensure that no new tunnels were built.    Before being sidelined, Boehler also stated that the US is “not an agent of Israel” but had its own interests, raising alarm bells in both Israel and the US and leading to the withdrawal of Boehler’s nomination.   According to an article in Haaretz, Boehler had been shuttled around the region by Bashar al-Masri, the Palestinian-American billionaire who built the new Palestinian city of Rawabi near Ramallah which bears a close resemblance to an Israeli settlement.  They reportedly flew in al-Masri’s private jet, which used to belong to Yasser Arafat. 

 

As food prices skyrocket in Gaza and its desperate residents again face impending starvation, a new reportdrafted by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory describes how Israel has committed one of the five genocidal acts enumerated under Article II of  the Genocide Convention:  “Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group.”  Entitled “More than a human can bear”: Israel’s systematic use of sexual, reproductive and other forms of gender-based violence since 7 October 2023, the 49-page report details the direct military targeting of Palestinian women and girls, the destruction of sexual and reproductive health care facilities,  and the rape and systematic sexual violence, forced nudity and humiliation, beatings and other forms of physical abuse to which women have been subjected.   The report concludes: “Israel’s use of starvation as a method of war, the denial of humanitarian assistance and the concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system, compounded by the lack of water and access to sanitation facilities, have caused severe reproductive harms to women and girls, impacting all aspects of reproduction, including pregnancy, childbirth, post-partum recovery and lactation.”  The sexual violence used against male Palestinians in Gaza and by soldiers and settlers in the post-October 7th West Bank is also documented in the report.

 

In the West Bank Ramadan has been marked by at least ten Israeli attacks on mosques, including the burning of the historic Al-Nasr Mosque in the old city of Nablus that dates back to 1187, and tight restrictionson who could attend Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem for Friday prayers.  The forced displacements and  military assault on refugee camps and northern towns are ongoing,  with five Palestinians killed in Jenin on March 10-11 alone.  As parts of the West Bank are steadily emptied, Itamar Ben-Gvir has presented the Knessetwith a bill that would annul the Oslo Accords and subsequent agreements and pave the way for its annexation. 

 

Meanwhile Israel’s Ministry for Diaspora Affairs and Combatting Antisemitism has invited members of Europe’s far right parties to attend its International Conference on Combatting Antisemitism, which will be held in late March.  The Commissioner for Jewish Life in Germany, along with some other Europeans, reportedly pulled out of the event after learning about the far right invitees. 

 

In the US the weaponization of ‘antisemitism’ to repress dissent and intimidate universities went into high gear after Trump on March 4 warned students involved in pro Palestinian protests that “agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came.  American students will be permanently expelled or…arrested.”  On March 6 Axios reported that the State Department was using AI to implement a ‘Catch and Revoke’ policy to locate and cancel the visas of ‘pro-Hamas’ foreign students. 

 

Two days later plainclothes ICE agents, including one who had recently been honored by Trump, seized Columbia University master’s graduate Mahmoud Khalil from his home in New York.   They appeared unaware that Khalil, a Palestinian refugee from Syria who had served as a negotiator between the Columbia administration and students participating in its encampment, is not on a student visa, but is instead a legal permanent resident and green card holder married to an American who is eight months pregnant.   He is not accused of any crime but was nevertheless  immediately ‘disappeared’ to a detention camp in Louisiana where he is being held under an obscure provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 that permits the deportation of “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”  The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) immediately commended “the swift and severe consequences for those who provide material support for foreign terrorist organizations” although there is no evidence that Khalil did anything other than exercise his First Amendment rights.  Those rights are now being targeted by the Trump Administration with potentially dire implications for higher education – some 60 universities have been listedfor investigation for “Antisemitic Discrimination and Harassment” – and for the entire country. 

 

Foreign countries that challenge US policy on Israel are also in the line of fire – quite literally in Yemen, which the US bombed on March 15/16 killing over 30 people including children, and less bloodily in the case of South Africa, whose ambassador has been expelled for what Secretary of State Rubio called  “anti-American behavior.” President Trump has meanwhile turned the very word ‘Palestinian’ into a weapon and racial slur.  On March 12 he declared about Senator Chuck Schumer – who had just affirmed that Democrats were united against the “terrible” Republican spending bill -  that he is “a Palestinian, as far as I’m concerned.  He’s become a Palestinian.  He used to be Jewish.  He’s not Jewish anymore.  He’s a Palestinian.”

 

The very next day Schumer stunned his party when he reversed himself and said he would be supporting the Republican bill after all.  Will he now be Jewish again in Trump’s eyes?

 

Nancy Murray, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine

 

Saturday, March 22, is World Water Day.  We hope you will join us for a Standout and Procession to protest Israel’s genocidal attacks on Palestine’s water resources:  1 PM at Downtown Crossing in Boston.

Boatless in Gaza: Using old fridge doors to catch fish

Balanced calmly on top of what was once a refrigerator door, fisherman Khaled Habib uses a makeshift paddle to propel himself through the waters of Gaza City’s fishing port.

More than 15 months of Israeli bombardment has destroyed most of the boats in the harbour, wrecking the fishermen’s means of making a living.

“We’re in a very difficult situation today, and struggling with the fishing. There are no fishing boats left. They’ve all been destroyed and tossed on the ground,” said Habib.

“I made this boat from refrigerator doors and cork, and thankfully it worked.”

Boatless in Gaza: Using old fridge doors to catch fish

2024 in the West Bank – The Year of Annexation and Expulsion Settlement Watch Team, Peace Now

The second year of the Netanyahu-Smotrich-Ben Gvir government is the year in which the government’s annexation plan began to be implemented in practice, as stipulated in the coalition agreement at the end of 2022. As a reminder, in 2023, the Settlement Administration was established within the Ministry of Defense, headed by Minister Smotrich. The administration was created as part of the implementation of the coalition agreements between Likud and Religious Zionism. At the same time, the appointment of Itamar Ben Gvir as Minister responsible for the police led to a significant reduction in law enforcement on settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Read the article here