Israeli forces must stop attacks on Palestinians
The Israeli forces started withdrawing from the refugee camp in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday after nearly two days of a large-scale deadly military incursion in the area that left 13 Palestinians killed, hundreds wounded and around 3,000 residents fled the camp. The raid on the Jenin refugee camp was illegally launched early Monday, for the second time in less than two weeks, involving airstrikes and deployment of hundreds of soldiers under the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government.
According to transnational media reports, more than 190 Palestinians have been killed in six months of this year in the West Bank, part of more than a year-long spike in violence that has seen some of the worst bloodshed in the area in nearly two decades. Reportedly, tensions have been running high across the occupied West Bank in recent months amid repeated Israeli raids into Palestinian towns. This time, they pushed military bulldozers into the heart of the refugee camp, while helicopters targeted sites with air missiles ahead of heavy demolition machines.
Analysts have said that the current escalation in Jenin might be part of an effort by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to appease far-right ministers in his own government, as he continues to face domestic pressure from the country’s opposition. For months, Israeli politicians have been debating the necessity of another re-invasion of West Bank cities, similar to 2002’s ‘Defensive Shield’. Even Israeli security minister Itamar Ben Vir championed a new operation, calling for a large-scale invasion of the West Bank that would bring, according to him, the crushing of the new wave of armed Palestinian resistance.
Indeed, Israel has occupied the West Bank since the Six-Day War of 1967. The territory is now home to around 490,000 Israelis in settlements which analysts considered illegal under international law. Over decades, Palestinians have been regularly subjected to violence by Israeli settlers, including physical attacks, shooting with live ammunition, torching of fields and livestock, theft and vandalisation of property. Israeli forces also perpetrate widespread attacks against Palestinians, which often lead to deadly escalations, including regular disproportionate aerial bombardments of the blockaded Gaza Strip.
We think the US government should come forward to resolve the long standing Palestinian issue and take initiative to stop frequent killings in the occupied Gaza Strip by the Israeli forces. Sadly, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council has said that they support Israel’s security and right to defend its people against Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other terrorist groups.
The Palestinians, who seek their own independent State, want Israel to withdraw from all land it seized in the Six-Day War in 1967 and to dismantle all Jewish settlements. We also support the Palestinians’ demand for an independent State.
