Amid Israel’s intensified military crackdown in the West Bank – part of its security response to the October 7 Hamas attack from Gaza – this occupied territory has seen its deadliest month in two decades.
According to the United Nations, the Israeli army killed 147 Palestinians across the West Bank from October 7 to November 8, including 44 children – more than in all of 2022. A series of isolated attacks by Palestinian gunmen on settlements and Israeli outposts killed one Israeli reserve soldier on vacation last week and injured two settlers late Wednesday. As of Thursday, 2,200 Palestinians had been arrested in large-scale raids across the West Bank.
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Israeli authorities’ crackdown and proliferation of security checkpoints have transformed life in the West Bank, with young Palestinians in particular struggling to navigate new, dangerous territory.
But the most visible symbols of this remilitarized life are checkpoints: as early as August, the UN counted 645 physical barriers and checkpoints in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, an increase of 8% compared to January. Since October 7, dozens more have been documented across the territory in which Israeli security forces spend several minutes inspecting passengers’ phones.
West Bank residents say they feel surrounded on all sides at all times.
“We are being suffocated by the occupation, Israeli military attacks, checkpoints and now settlers,” said Hussein, a university student in Ramallah who felt safe with only his first name in print. “It’s like breathing is a crime.”
Israeli military attacks in towns and villages, checkpoints on the streets, settler attacks looming at any moment – Palestinians across the occupied West Bank say they now face potentially deadly violence every few hours.
Amid Israel’s intensified military crackdown here in the West Bank – part of its security response to the October 7 Hamas attack from Gaza – this occupied territory has seen its deadliest month in two decades.
The violence has disrupted Palestinians’ daily lives and created an ominous environment in which a life-threatening situation or obstacle is imminent.
Why we wrote this
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Israeli authorities’ crackdown and proliferation of security checkpoints have transformed life in the West Bank, with young Palestinians in particular struggling to navigate new, dangerous territory.
“We are not under rockets like Gaza or in a war, but there is no safe space in the West Bank either, even when it is calm,” said Mohammed, whose home in Ramallah was stormed last week by Israeli forces looking for a suspect .
“Since October 7, we have gone from occupation to complete rule,” he says.
According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Israeli forces killed 147 Palestinians, including 44 children, across the West Bank from October 7 to November 8 – more than in all of 2022. The United Nations reports eight more Palestinians, including a child, were killed by settlers in the West Bank. Clashes and Israeli military attacks on Wednesday and Thursday pushed the death toll in the West Bank to 181, the Palestinian health ministry said.
In a series of isolated attacks by Palestinian gunmen on settlements and Israeli outposts, an Israeli reserve soldier on leave in the northern West Bank was killed last week and two settlers were wounded with gunshot wounds late Wednesday.
Widespread Israeli raids across the West Bank have arrested 2,200 Palestinians as of Thursday, in what the Israel Defense Forces said were preemptive arrests of militants and cells planning attacks.
Palestinian officials, activists and families say the raid also arrested moderate Fatah leaders, student activists and average citizens, whose relatives say their only perceived threat was speaking out on social media about the war between Israel and Hamas Post. The detainees are being held in undisclosed locations about which families or lawyers have little information, families say.
Palestinians say they feel surrounded on all sides at all times.
“We are being suffocated by the occupation, by Israeli military attacks, by checkpoints and now by settlers,” said Hussein, a university student in Ramallah who felt safe with only his first name in print. “It’s like breathing is a crime.”
The most visible symbols of this remilitarized life in the West Bank are checkpoints.
Raneen Sawafta/Reuters
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Israeli troops control the border crossing after a settler attack in Deir Sharaf, near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, November 2, 2023.
“This is collective punishment”
Since October 7, old Israeli checkpoints and roadblocks from the second intifada have been revived; Today, hastily laid earthworks cover the central roads leading to Ramallah and other cities.
Post Oct. 7 checkpoints feature concrete blocks and shiny new yellow gates.
Israeli flags now hang from overpasses and fly from checkpoints, poles and towers on roads connecting West Bank towns and villages. You could be forgiven for thinking that you are driving in Israel.
Already in August, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counted 645 physical barriers and checkpoints in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, an 8% increase from January. Since October 7, the office has documented dozens of additional checkpoints across the West Bank.
At the entrances and exits from Jericho, the only entry point for Palestinians, visitors and cargo from Jordan to the West Bank, checkpoints set up in February are now fully staffed. Every single vehicle is checked, slowing traffic to hours-long waits.
“Last check: everyone, delete your photos!” Taxi driver Abu Abed calls out to three passengers as they approach the checkpoint after a two-hour wait. He says this is now considered “an open road on a good day.”
“The first thing we do every morning is delete the photos and videos on our phones,” explains Abu Abed, who like others in this story uses a teknonym, a common practice in which people are referred to by their children’s names will protect his safety. “If there is any photo or video of victims in Gaza, or any video shared in a WhatsApp group that purports to be from Hamas or shows the war, you will end up in prison,” he says, pointing out that two of his fellow passengers in prison were arrested.
At checkpoints in the West Bank, Israeli security forces spend several minutes inspecting passengers’ phones.
“This is collective punishment,” says driver Abu Yassin, whose Ramallah-Saffa route now passes through multiple checkpoints, meaning a 40-minute commute can take half a day. “With these checkpoints, the Israelis are punishing every woman, child and man who has nothing to do with militants, who is just trying to go about their lives and go to school, work and get medical care as they should. ” your country.”
Mohammed Abu Yusuf’s vegetable shop on the outskirts of Birzeit, a town north of Ramallah, is now between two checkpoints.
Raneen Sawafta/Reuters
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Clashes erupt between Palestinians and Israeli troops following a settler attack in Deir Sharaf near Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank on November 2, 2023.
A watchtower 50 meters uphill from his shop, previously abandoned during the second intifada, is now manned by Israeli military and cordoning off the street. A new checkpoint was set up 50 meters below his shop on the main street. Last week, settlers raided his store.
“We are worried that increasing interaction with the Israeli military and settlers could lead to us being shot every day,” says Abu Yusuf. “But what can we do? We have to try to live.”
History that repeats itself
Veterans of the second intifada — in which 6,371 Palestinians and 1,083 Israelis were killed, spurring Israel’s construction of the massive concrete barrier along much of the border between Israel and the West Bank — recognize the dynamic.
But for those born around or after the 2001 uprising and who have no memory of the Israeli military occupation and incursions of that time, it came as a shock. According to the United Nations, 30% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip are under 20 years old and half are under 29 years old.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” says 18-year-old Mashur Zaher as he unloads a delivery of vegetables. “Checkpoints everywhere and Israeli tanks entering villages were stories I heard from my parents and older brothers, but I thought that was history. I never thought it would happen again and happen to me.”
Checkpoints and settler attacks have forced universities in the West Bank to close campuses and switch to distance learning. Several international organizations and companies have ordered employees in the West Bank to work from home and implement pandemic protocols.
Some young Palestinians responded with protests and riots that led to deadly confrontations with the Israeli military.
One such flashpoint is a group of roadblocks and a manned Israeli checkpoint at the northern entrance to Al-Bireh, a main entry point into Ramallah, the West Bank capital, which was enforced after October 7.
The street is littered with scorch marks from burnt tires and Molotov cocktails from nighttime collisions.
In this pressurized environment, events can quickly escalate even in the sleepiest and quietest neighborhoods of the West Bank.
An alleged Israeli military attack on a residential building in Al-Bireh last Thursday to arrest two university students ended in violence when local youths allegedly threw stones at the Israeli military jeeps, prompting Israeli forces to open fire and kill one killing young Palestinians and a 14-year-old boy.
“Even when you sit at home and mind your own business, the conflict comes to you,” said Umm Mohammed, a local resident who witnessed the raid. “We are avoiding checkpoints, avoiding traveling between cities and now not going out at night. And the violence and the Israelis are still coming to us.”
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths warned Thursday that “we must not lose sight of the deteriorating situation in the West Bank,” where incidents of violence “are the worst in years.”
Palestinian officials are more blunt.
“Anyone who thinks that the West Bank will remain calm amid all these obstructions, arrests, attacks and deaths,” said Ahmed Majdalani, a senior Palestinian Authority official, “is either mistaken or stupid.”
Source : www.csmonitor.com