The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned in a statement that Israeli forces are using “lethal war-like tactics,” including air strikes, in the occupied West Bank, with people being killed, injured, displaced or deprived of access to basic services.
The Israeli military’s latest assault across the occupied West Bank is now in its eighth day.
At least 33 Palestinians have been killed and 130 wounded since last Wednesday, the vast majority in Jenin.
The statement added that OCHA mobilised organisations from the UN and beyond to assess the damage and humanitarian needs on the ground, adding that during a visit to Tulkarem on Saturday, it was confirmed that 120 people, including more than 40 children, had been displaced and their homes destroyed.
It added that residents were traumatised and in need of psychosocial support.
“OCHA warns that access impediments are impacting the ability to provide meaningful humanitarian response,” the statement noted.
“The movement of ambulances and medical teams has been impeded and delayed since the onset of the now-week-long operation. Humanitarian access must always be facilitated,” the statement added.
Meanwhile, Israel Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant said in a statement issued by his ministry, that in the face of the resurgence of terrorism, “we are eradicating terrorist organisations throughout Judea and Samaria [the occupied West Bank].”
He added, “These terrorist organisations … must be erased… There is no other option, use all the forces, everyone who is needed, with full strength.”
The Israeli military is now carrying out its seventh day of massive raids across the occupied West Bank, including in Jenin, a city that is home to nearly 50,000 people.
The continuing raids, mostly concentrated on the Tulkarem and Jenin refugee camps, constitute Israel’s largest assault on the occupied territory since the second Intifada in the early 2000s.
According to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, Israeli forces have rounded up 30 Palestinians in raids across the occupied West Bank since last night.
“Among those apprehended are children and former prisoners,” the group said.
It added, “Their detentions bring Israel’s total number of arrests in the West Bank since October 7 to more than 10,400.”
Israeli Raids Aimed At Fortifying Occupation Of West Bank
Palestinian reporter Leila Warah stated that Israel’s latest assault in the occupied West Bank is not a counterterrorism operation as it claims, but an attempt to “fortify the occupation.”
“They want to make their occupation stronger so that in the long run, they can take over the West Bank and turn it into part of the Israeli state, which we’re already seeing,” she said.
Moreover, she stressed that despite Israel’s military operations to “suppress” Palestinian resistance, it is unlikely to work.
“It just creates more resistance, more people coming forward and resisting … these are very young Palestinian men with very limited resources who are desperate to not be living under occupation.”
Leila Warah
Additionally, Warah noted that the situation in the occupied West Bank is dire with Israeli raids taking place not just in the north but all over the territory.
“Ultimately, when we’re looking at this and what the goal is, political analysts are saying Israel is trying to seize more land, which is leading to people feeling very fearful
“It is clear that things are escalating. Israeli politicians have been speaking about the West Bank being a second battleground after Gaza and again coming back to the point of them wanting to seize more land.”
Leila Warah
“And this is a great opportunity for them to do that and to use collective punishment policies to scare Palestinians into submission,” she added.
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