Geneva – Ma’an – The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said that the large-scale military operation announced by the Israeli army in the northern West Bank is part of the widespread and dangerous aggression launched by Israel against the Palestinians, alongside the violence of armed settler groups, and an expansion of the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip since October 7.
The Euro-Mediterranean field team in the West Bank has monitored, in recent months, the increase in the frequency and level of Israeli violations, including killing, storming and destruction, in addition to enabling and facilitating settlers to commit violent crimes against Palestinians in various parts of the West Bank, including murder, threats and destruction of private movable and immovable property, and the destruction and theft of agricultural crops.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor highlighted that the ongoing attacks took a new escalating form with the Israeli army announcing the start of a large-scale military op
eration targeting the northern West Bank under the name of “summer camps”, which has so far been concentrated in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm, during which the army killed 9 Palestinians and injured at least 18 others, according to an initial toll.
Euro-Mediterranean Monitor reported that the Israeli forces, which were accompanied by a large number of vehicles and bulldozers and covered by helicopters and drones, began at midnight on Tuesday/Wednesday to storm the cities and camps of Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarm, from several axes and impose a tight siege on them.
He reported that in Jenin, large forces of the occupation army stormed the city from the “Al-Jalameh” military checkpoint, and surrounded the “Jenin” government hospital and “Ibn Sina” hospital, amid the outbreak of violent clashes, during which the two young men “Qassam Muhammad Jabarin” (25 years old) and “Asim Walid Dabaya” (39 years old) were killed, and others were injured.
He pointed out that an Israeli drone bombed a car between the villages of Se
ir and Masiliya, south of Jenin, killing three young men who were inside. This attack is an extension of Israel’s return to using warplanes, helicopters and drones to launch raids on Palestinian homes, cars and gatherings in the West Bank since last October, as Euro-Mediterranean documented no less than 47 raids that caused a large number of Palestinian deaths and injuries.
In Tubas, the Euro-Mediterranean team documented an Israeli drone bombing a gathering in the Fara’a camp, south of the city. Israeli forces prevented ambulance crews from reaching the targeted area, and imposed a tight siege on the Fara’a camp. The Israeli bombing resulted in the deaths of 4 Palestinians, including the two children: “Murad” (13 years old) and “Mohammed Masoud Ja’aysah” (17 years old), in addition to “Ibrahim Abdel Qader Ghanimi” (22 years old) and “Ahmed Saleh Nabrisi” (23 years old).
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor highlighted that the Israeli army replicated its horrific systematic policy of violating healt
h institutions that it used in the Gaza Strip, and immediately proceeded to besiege hospitals, ambulances and emergency centers in the areas it penetrated in the West Bank.
Dr. Wissam Bakr, director of Jenin Governmental Hospital, said that he received a notification from the Palestinian Liaison Office about the Israeli army’s intention to storm the hospital, which has been under siege since early on.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reported that the army forces stormed Tulkarm from its western axis, deployed in its neighborhoods, and deployed infantry and sniper teams in the forests and farms surrounding the camp, amidst intensive drone flights.
An Israeli drone bombed “Harat Al-Manshiya” in Nour Shams camp, wounding two Palestinians. The forces also surrounded “Al-Israa Specialized Hospital” in the western neighborhood, and “Al-Shaheed Thabet Thabet” Governmental Hospital, obstructed the movement of ambulances, detained one of them in front of the government hospital, and searched it.
In all
the areas they invaded, the Israeli army forces carried out operations to destroy property and infrastructure, especially streets. Simultaneously with the storming of these areas, raids were carried out in most of the cities of the West Bank, and arrests and destruction operations were carried out amidst gunfire that resulted in the injury of many Palestinians.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor highlighted that the Israeli occupation army is carrying out premeditated murders in the West Bank in a systematic and widespread manner, killing 660 Palestinians since October 7.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor warns that Israel is committing the crime of forced displacement against thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, as it did in the Gaza Strip, especially since there are many public positions and incitements issued by Israeli ministers in the Israeli government that indicate an intention to carry out the crime of genocide in the West Bank, including the forced displacement of Palestin
ians there, including the statement of Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz, who said that Israel must deal with the West Bank “just as we deal with the infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of residents and any steps that may be required.”
In this context, the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth reported that it is likely that “an organized evacuation of the Palestinian civilian population will be carried out according to the expected combat centers” during the military operation, which is a clear indication of Israel’s intention to commit genocide in the West Bank as it is in the Gaza Strip.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor pointed out that the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs documented that between 7 October 2023 and 19 August 2024, the Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated or forced their owners to demolish 1,416 Palestinian buildings across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing more than 3,200 Palestinians, including abo
ut 1,400 children, more than double the number in the same period before 7 October, when 1,299 Palestinians were displaced, including 606 children.
The demolitions include approximately 500 inhabited structures, over 300 agricultural structures, over 100 water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and 200 livelihood structures. Some 28 incidents of demolition and destruction of infrastructure, mostly in Tulkarm and Jenin, account for the majority of the affected structures.
In this context, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor recalls what the International Court of Justice declared in its advisory opinion on the legality of the Israeli occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories and its consequences, issued on 19 July, that the planning policy pursued by Israel with regard to Palestinian construction, and in particular its practice of demolishing Palestinian property and homes differently from those of settlers without justification, constitutes prohibited discrimination, in contravention of Articl
es 2, paragraph 1, and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 2, paragraph 2 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, and Article 2 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and thus constitutes one of Israel’s aspects of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination.
He stressed that this escalation and persistence in the crime of aggression and genocide and its extension from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, would not have continued and escalated without the cover and partnership of the United States and some European countries, and the silence of the majority of the countries of the world, which must assume their responsibilities and take practical steps to protect Palestinian civilians, stop the mass killing and prevent the completion of the crime of genocide.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor renewed its call for all countries to assume their international responsibilities by
stopping the crime of genocide and all serious crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, ensuring Israel’s compliance with the rules of international law and imposing effective sanctions on it, and stopping all forms of political, financial and military support and cooperation provided to it, including the immediate cessation of arms transfers to it, including export licenses and military aid, otherwise these countries will be complicit and partners in the crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, including the crime of genocide.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor also urged the International Criminal Court to proceed with the investigation into all crimes committed by Israel in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, expand the scope of investigation into individual criminal responsibility for these crimes to include all those responsible, issue arrest warrants against them, and recognize and deal with the crimes committed by Israel as genocide without equivocation, as they are international crime
s that fall within the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called on the international community to immediately work to end the root causes of the suffering and persecution of the Palestinian people for 76 years, to immediately end the illegal Israeli occupation and settler colonialism imposed on Palestinian land, including the Gaza Strip, to dismantle the apartheid regime imposed against all Palestinians, to end the illegal blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip and its population for 17 years, and to intervene decisively to support the path of the Palestinian people’s liberation and the exercise of their right to self-determination.
Source: Maan News Agency