On the Agenda

On Tuesday, 10 September 2024, around 12:30 P.M., Israeli special forces accompanied by a surveillance drone entered Tulkarm Refugee Camp. At least some of them arrived in civilian vehicles with Palestinian license plates. About an hour and a half later, additional military, Border Police, and Shin Bet (ISA) forces entered the camp, equipped with heavy engineering vehicles intended to destroy the streets.

On Wednesday, 25 September 2024, at around 5:00 P.M., an Israeli military force including undercover operatives from the Duvdevan Unit entered the village of ‘Anzah, south of Jenin, in a car with Palestinian license plates. The forces surrounded the home of 38-year-old Muhammad Barahmeh, a released prisoner, and arrested him. During the operation, some youths from the village threw stones at the forces from a great distance. The soldiers fired at them. No one among the forces or the youths was injured.

Since the war in Gaza began, the Israeli regime has removed all restraints on its violence towards Palestinians in the entire area it controls. The escalation in the severity and scope of violence was visible during the olive harvest, too: B’Tselem’s field researchers documented dozens of cases throughout the West Bank in which harvesters were attacked and driven off their land at gunpoint by soldiers and settlers. Harvesters were ousted not only from lands next to settlements, but also from plots in Area B, near Palestinian villages and even inside them, sometimes right at their doorstep. Settlers, some of them masked, hit harvesters with clubs, iron bars and stones, and in some cases threatened to kill them. In many cases, soldiers who were present – some of whom the residents identified as settlers from the area – either ignored the attacks and the attempts to force the farmers out or actively joined in by shooting or threatening to shoot them, and hurling tear gas canisters and stun grenades at them. In one documented incident, soldiers shot and killed 59-year-old Hanan Abu Salameh. In others, settlers or soldiers inflicted severe injuries on harvesters, including broken bones, burns and cerebral hemorrhage. Some of the harvesters were rushed to medical facilities for treatment and required prolonged hospitalization. 
 

B’Tselem welcomes the deal, but the catastrophe persists. We welcome the ceasefire and hostage release deal signed between Israel and Hamas. However, the catastrophe persists. Millions of people in Gaza remain destitute, starving, and homeless. A ceasefire is only the first step, and one that should have happened long ago. There is a real concern that Israel will resume fighting after the first phase of the deal is complete...

On 28 August 2024, Israel launched Operation Summer Camp, a series of multi-day raids by Israeli forces on refugee camps and cities in the northern West Bank. During these raids, dozens of people were arrested, and extensive damage was inflicted on civilian infrastructure. The military presence in the camps and cities led to clashes and exchanges of fire between the forces and Palestinian gunmen. Dozens of Palestinians were killed during the operation...

On Wednesday, 18 September 2024, around 3:00 A.M., hundreds of Israeli soldiers raided al-Fawar Refugee Camp southwest of Hebron, entering in dozens of military vehicles. The troops spread out in the camp, sealed off the entrances to the camp and forbade residents from leaving their homes. They stayed for more than 12 hours, during which time movement was forbidden, shops were shuttered and school was canceled. The troops seized the al-Khatib family’s home, removed the inhabitants and used it as a center for Shin Bet interrogations...

On Saturday, 21 September 2024, at around 3:30 A.M., several military and Border Police jeeps arrived on the main road between Kafr ‘Aqab and Qalandia Refugee Camp that leads to Ramallah. The jeeps drove against the flow of traffic, and stopped about 40 meters from the entrance to the camp.

On Thursday, 15 August 2024, at around 7:30 P.M., residents of the southeastern neighborhood of Jit noticed dozens of settlers, most of them masked and some armed, approaching the al-Bayada area of the village from the direction of the Gilad Farm outpost. The settlers set fire to vehicles and homes, and when village residents came out to protect their property and belongings, confrontations developed between them and the settlers, which included mutual stone-throwing. About 20 minutes into the attack, Rashid a-Sadeh, 22, left his house with a relative to join the residents defending their homes.

For over a year, Israel has been waging an unrestrained war against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and within the State of Israel. The violence that has always characterized the Israeli apartheid regime’s treatment of Palestinians is now appearing in its most direct and exposed form. This report focuses on one facet of this violence: recurring instances of severe abuse of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers in the center of Hebron throughout the summer of 2024...

The ICC’s issuing of international arrest warrants for Israel’s leaders on the suspicion they committed the crimes of starvation, persecution, and intentionally directing an attack against civilians is one of the lowest points in Israeli history. Unfortunately, all we know about the conduct of Israel in the Gaza Strip over the past year - which was conducted with the knowledge and the direction of the prime minister and the ministerial cabinet – it isn’t surprising that the evidence indicates that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Gallant are responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity...

On Friday, 6 September 2024, at around 3:00 P.M., dozens of settlers, some of them armed, arrived at the southern edge of the village of Qaryut in Nablus District. Soldiers escorting them in a military jeep stopped near the ‘Ein Silon freshwater spring, about a kilometer away from village homes. Some of the soldiers walked up the road leading to the village and stopped about a 100 meters from the homes. From there, they occasionally fired live rounds at residents who gathered to defend the village. The settlers stopped about 100 meters from the homes and pelted them with stones. Three settlers, one of them holding a Molotov cocktail, went towards one of the homes and tried to set it on fire. Residents pushed them away and started chasing them. During the chase, one of the settlers threw a stone that hit Muhammad Musa (28) in the jaw. Musa was taken to hospital and remained there until 18 September.

On Friday, 6 September 2024, about 100-150 Palestinians from the town of Beita and around 20 international and Israeli activists gathered for the weekly demonstration against the outpost of Evyatar, built on town land in Jabal Sbeih. Soldiers arrived before noon and deployed near the public park in the area of the Nimer grove, on a hill in the southern part of the town, where prayers are regularly held before the demonstration. At around 12:15 P.M., as locals gathered for the prayers, Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, an international activist, arrived in the area with other international activists. The prayers proceeded without incident, and then, at around 1:00 P.M., the residents and activists began leaving through the park gate. Most of the residents began making their way back home, with some heading for their cars in the parking lot at the entrance to the park and others walking down the road towards town homes...