In these territories controlled by the Israeli army, at least 58 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,200 were injured in ten days, according to the authorities. “It’s like a pressure cooker,” warns a humanitarian.
They expressed their anger after the deadly explosion at the hospital al-Ahli Arabi from Gaza on Tuesday October 17. In the occupied West Bank, from Ramallah to Nablus, hundreds of Palestinians demonstrated Tuesday evening, denouncing, among other things, “the injustice” And “the pain of the people of Gaza”. “The Palestinian Authority is not even capable of protecting its people from all this oppression!”, “Cleared !”, “The people want the president to fall!”, the demonstrators shouted. Several clashes broke out with the police on the sidelines of these rallies, which resumed on Wednesday in the West Bank.
Since the deadly Hamas attack in Israel, which left more than 1,400 dead and provoked an Israeli response that killed more than 3,000 people in the Gaza Strip, the situation has been particularly tense in this region occupied since 1967. In the West Bank , a territory with some three million Palestinians and around 500,000 Jewish Israeli settlers, at least 58 Palestinians were killed and more than 1,200 injured in ten days, according to the Health Ministry. A report mentioned by the UN, which is concerned “of increasing violence”.
Daily violence
“The situation was already very tense before, but after October 7, these tensions became even stronger”summarizes Allegra Pacheco, project manager at the West Bank Protection Consortium, a network of international NGOs acting in the West Bank. “It’s like a pressure cooker. The steam and pressure can cause an explosion, and we are on the verge of that.”also warns Roy Yellin, of B’Tselem, the Israeli information center for human rights in the occupied territories.
According to a resident interviewed by AFP, “Israeli soldiers and settlers easily open fire to take revenge for what is happening.” In the village of Beita, near Nablus, for example, an Israeli soldier shot a young man. Clashes with Israeli forces led to the deaths of at least nine Palestinians on Friday during demonstrations in support of Gaza, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
According to AFP journalists, violent clashes took place in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron and even Tulkarem. Several dozen people were injured, the Palestinian Red Crescent reported. Clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces also left the latter injured. In East Jerusalem, two Israeli police officers were shot and wounded on Thursday, before the assailant was shot dead.
“The situation is very serious for the West Bank. We haven’t seen this since the second Intifada in the early 2000s. Violence has increased everywhere.”
Allegra Pacheco, West Bank Protection Consortiumat franceinfo
Palestinians are also targeted by Israeli settlers in the West Bank, whose presence is illegal in the eyes of the UN. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “Settler violence is on the rise, particularly in Palestinian communities close to Israeli settlements.” In 11 days, the UN agency recorded 82 settler attacks resulting in injuries or material damage. This represents an average of seven attacks per day, “compared to an average of three attacks per day since the start of the year”. And for Allegra Pacheco, this data “do not include acts of harassment, threats and intimidation that take place” within the occupied territory.
Since October 7, B’Tselem has documented approximately 45 acts of threats, physical attacks, theft or damage to property targeting Palestinians. For nearly 30 of them, the alleged perpetrators are settlers, according to the center’s database consulted by franceinfo. “Settlers go to Palestinian families and tell them: ‘You have 24 hours to leave or we will hurt you'”says Roy Yellin. “They limit access to water, destroy crops…” According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, “settler attack on the town of Qusra” even led to the deaths of four Palestinians on October 11. “There is an incitement to violence, with a strategic agenda to be able to retake parts of the West Bank”, supports Allegra Pacheco.
A territory divided into enclaves
On WhatsApp, groups of Israeli settlers emerged in the hours following the Hamas assault, to organize actions in the West Bank, reports The Times of Israel. The newspaper cites in particular a group with 800 members, whose description evokes “the possibility of mobilizing for joint activity with the security forces, for the immediate demolition of the terrorists’ houses.” On Saturday, however, Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari recalled that “responsibility for security in settlements and on the roads rests solely with the army”.
In response to the attacks, the Israeli army tightened its control of movement in the West Bank. “She installed physical obstacles, concrete blocks, barriers blocking roads connecting Palestinian villages to the main cities”illustrates Allegra Pacheco, emphasizing that “These restrictions do not block settlements, but Palestinian civilians.” Speaking to RFI, the director of the NGO Bisan testifies: “Lhe Israelis cut the West Bank into small enclaves and we were no longer even allowed to move from one town to another. (…) All internal trade has been stopped.” In the Jenin camp, in the northern West Bank, horses have been installed to prevent the passage of Israeli army armored vehicles, and armed militants are monitoring the area, notes The world.
More present, the Israeli forces also carried out a series of arrests in these territories. “Around 470 Palestinians from the West Bank, mostly Hamas, were placed in administrative detention”reported the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, cited by AFP. “We have not seen a campaign of arrests of this magnitude for years in the West Bank.” Across this region, support for Hamas remains in the majority: 52% of Palestinians living in the West Bank have a rather positive opinion of the Islamist and terrorist movement, according to a study by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
Fear of a humanitarian crisis
From Jerusalem, Adam Bouloukos, director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA), testifies to a West Bank “divided into villages, towns and roads now completely isolated and separated from each other.” The approximately 3,700 employees of the UN organization in the West Bank cannot leave their villages or towns, while many Palestinians no longer have access to their work due to these restrictions.
“About 100,000 West Bank residents are now out of work. They used to commute to Israel every day, and they can no longer do that.”
Adam Bouloukos, director of UNRWA in the West Bankat franceinfo
Other residents can no longer move from one city to another to work, he continues, referring to “an immediate economic impact”. Several hundred people – at least 545, according to a latest UN report on Thursday – have also been forcibly displaced in the West Bank over the past 11 days, due to threats or attacks from advancing settlers. Bedouin communities have been affected, for example in Wadi Siq, east of Ramallah.
UNRWA manages to continue a significant part of its work in the West Bank, but due to restrictions on movement, “we cannot provide an answer to this Bedouin community who lost their homes in Wadi Siq”, alert Adam Bouloukos. If these blockages persist, “Things are going to get a little more problematic.”