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Jewish settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, seize a house belonging to the Nasir al-Din family in the Old City of Hebron, West Bank on September 02, 2025. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned Thursday that Palestinians in the occupied West Bank are facing mass forced displacement at the hands of the Israeli occupation army and illegal settlers, amounting to an imminent risk of ethnic cleansing.
In its statement, MSF stressed that Israel’s annexation-driven policies in the occupied West Bank represent grave breaches of international humanitarian law and human rights law.
According to the organisation, in 2025 MSF teams witnessed policies and practices that are “blatantly designed to remove Palestinians from their land and prevent any possibility of return.”
MSF concluded that “ending the occupation remains the only way to alleviate the severe suffering facing Palestinians.” The group urged the United States, European Union member states, and the wider international community to apply real pressure to halt Israel’s practices of displacement and ensure an end to its illegal occupation.
The warning came a day after far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich declared that Tel Aviv intends to annex 82 per cent of the occupied West Bank under Israeli sovereignty in order to block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
In preparation for annexation, Israel has intensified its crimes in the West Bank since launching its genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip in October 2023. These crimes include home demolitions, mass displacement of Palestinian civilians, widespread land confiscation, and the accelerated expansion of illegal settlements.
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Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
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Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir leads a large group of illegal settlers in a provocative march and mass incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, coinciding with the Jewish commemoration of Tisha B’Av in East Jerusalem on August 3, 2025. [Gazi Samad – Anadolu Agency]
Saudi Arabia on Sunday strongly condemned repeated Israeli provocations at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem, following an intrusion by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to the flashpoint site, Anadolu reports.
Ben-Gvir led a large group of illegal settlers in a mass incursion into the mosque complex early Sunday to mark the Jewish holiday of Tisha B’Av.
“These repeated provocative practices by officials of the Israeli occupation government at Al-Aqsa Mosque only serve to fuel conflict in the region,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry warned in a statement.
The kingdom stressed that such actions “violate international laws and norms” and undermine peace efforts.
Riyadh reiterated its “continued demand that the international community stop the practices of Israeli occupation officials” and called for urgent international intervention.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (3rd R) led a large group of illegal settlers in a provocative march and mass incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem on August 03, 2025. [Jerusalem Islamic Waqf – Anadolu Agency]
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir led a large group of illegal settlers in a provocative march and mass incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem early Sunday, coinciding with the Jewish commemoration of Tisha B’Av.
According to the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, at least 1,251 illegal Israeli settlers stormed the mosque compound in the morning hours performing Talmudic rituals, singing, and dancing under heavy police protection.
Among the participants was Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi, who joined Ben-Gvir in what Palestinian officials called an “unprecedented escalation in political and religious incitement,” according to Wafa news agency.
The Jerusalem Governorate warned of the seriousness of this large-scale, organized incursion, calling it a “systematic violation” of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque and the rights of Palestinian worshippers, Anadolu reports.
The incursion included assaults on Muslim worshippers, journalists, and Al-Aqsa guards.
In a statement from within the compound, Ben-Gvir said “the Temple Mount is for the Jews, and we will remain here forever,” sparking widespread condemnation.
The incursion came hours after Ben-Gvir led another illegal settler march through the Old City of Jerusalem after midnight.
The events were organized by extremist “Temple Mount” groups, which had called for mass entry into the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday to mark Tisha B’Av, which they refer to as the “anniversary of the Temple’s destruction.”
The Jerusalem Governorate described this year’s Tisha B’Av as one of the most dangerous days for Al-Aqsa, citing plans by the groups to designate Aug. 3 as the “largest day of incursions.”
The statement added that the Israeli government’s full alignment with illegal settler groups was emboldening efforts to alter the religious and legal status of the mosque.
Al-Aqsa Mosque is the world’s third-holiest site for Muslims. Jews call the area Temple Mount, claiming it was the site of two Jewish temples in ancient times.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa is located, during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. It annexed the entire city in 1980 in a move never recognized by the international community.
Israeli occupation forces obstructing the work of ambulances in Jenin. (Photo: Mohammad Mansour/WAFA)
Over 500 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in 2023. Under its undeclared policy of collective punishment, Israel also destroyed a significant amount of civilian infrastructure such as roads, residential buildings, and hospitals in West Bank since October 7
Israel’s war on Gaza has entered its fourth month. It has killed over 23,000 Palestinians in the besieged enclave and injured around 60,000. Nearly 80% of all Gazans have been displaced due to the constant bombings. The amount of destruction and killing in Gaza is horrendous. The offensive has also extended to the West Bank where Palestinians have been facing a form of undeclared collective punishment both before and since the war in Gaza.
Though the West Bank has always faced violent attacks from Israeli occupation, those attacks have increased manifold since the beginning of the war in Gaza. Despite the fact that Hamas does not rule the territory, Israel used the excuse of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood to justify its unprecedented attacks on civilians and their infrastructure there.
Between October 7 and December 31, last year more than 340 Palestinians, including a large number of children, were killed in attacks carried out by both the Israeli forces and illegal settlers.
The Israeli attacks targeted Palestinian civilians, including artists from the famous Freedom Theater, while homes were demolished, hospitals and medical facilities targeted, and roads and other civilian infrastructure uprooted.
At least three Palestinian men were shot and killed by the occupying Israeli forces during the intervening period of Monday evening and Tuesday night in Tulkarm. Video footage of these attacks showed Israeli forces first shooting and killing the men and then running over the bodies of one of them with their military vehicle.
A terrifying scene of an Israeli Jeep running over a young man after shooting him along with two other young men in Tulkarm in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers prevented paramedics from reaching the young men leaving them to bleed until they died. pic.twitter.com/Udm539Ho0D
Israeli forces reportedly conducted similar night raids in Qalqilya, Nablus, Ramallah, and Bethlehem, among several other places on Tuesday night, arresting scores of people and destroying civic infrastructure.
Israeli occupation is targeting the Palestinians in the West Bank economically as well by refusing to transfer millions of dollars in tax revenue to the Palestinian Authority, leaving it with no money to pay the salaries to its over 140,000 employees. It has also refused to allow around 150,000 workers from the territory to return to their jobs in Israel since October 7.
Deadliest Year since 2005
Israeli forces similarly attacked the Jenin refugee camp a couple of days ago and killed at least 7 Palestinians. They have targeted the camp repeatedly since October 7, killing over 60 Palestinians there and deliberately destroying most of the roads and other civil infrastructure. According to Al-Jazeera, Tulkarm too has been a center of Israeli attacks with at least 60 Palestinians killed since October 7.
In August, the UN had already declared 2023 to be the deadliest year for the West Bank as the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks had crossed 200, more than the previous high of 167 in 2022.
According to the latest data, the total number of Palestinians killed in 2023 has crossed 500 with over 13,000 more injured in the attacks carried out by both illegal settlers as well as Israeli soldiers.
More than 70 of the Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks were children. This is the highest number of the Palestinian children ever killed in the occupied West Bank in a year. Some sources say the death toll among children is even higher.
Settler Violence
According to Israeli human rights organization Yesh Din, 2023 was also the most violent year for the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in terms of the number of attacks carried out by the illegal settlers. According to it, at least 10 Palestinians were killed in 2023 just in those attacks.
According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), at least 1,225 cases of settler violence were recorded in 2023.
The figure presented by the Palestinian officials for the same is almost double at 2,410. It also claims that the number of Palestinians killed in settler violence in 2023 was 22.
There are around 500,000 Israeli settlers living illegally inside the occupied West Bank. Most of these illegal settlers participate in attacks on nearby Palestinian villages under security cover provided by the Israeli occupation forces.
The settlers attack the villages, burn Palestinian houses, their farms and other properties, and attack people trying to prevent those attacks with the objective of terrorizing people to leave their villages and farms.
Record number of Palestinians detained
More than 11,000 Palestinians were also arrested or detained by Israel in the last year in the occupied West Bank alone, which is almost three times higher than the total number of Palestinians inside Israeli prisons before the beginning of the year.
Some of them were later released after a brief period of detention. Some others were released as part of the prisoner exchange deal between Hamas and Israel. Still the number of Palestinian prisoners inside Israeli jails has jumped from around 4,500 before the beginning of the year to over 7,000 at the end of it.
A joint statement issued by Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission, the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Addameer, and others stated that 1,085 of those detained by the Israeli occupation forces from the West Bank in 2023 were children.
As per reports, scores of Palestinian prisoners have been killed inside Israeli jails with large number of them reporting torture and abuse by the prisoner authorities.
The data published by the Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs does not include all the children arrested by Israeli occupation forces this year, which, according to some sources, is above 750December 27, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch
More than 600 Palestinian children were kept under house arrest by Israeli occupation forces in 2022, according to the Commission for Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs, a prisoners’ rights body, which issued a statement on Monday, December 26. Minors were detained by the Israeli state for periods ranging between a few days and, in some cases, years, Wafa news agency reported.
The detained children are not allowed to move freely, or even go to school without an escort. They are also forced to wear tracking devices throughout the detention period.
The commission describes two kinds of detention of Palestinian children. One is in which the child stays with their family while an Israeli court decides on the case. This often takes months, and the family is often forced to pay a heavy amount as surety. To access such large sums of money, families often have to take loans or sell their property. In the second category, Israeli forces make Palestinian families take their children outside the city or town during the period of the trial, and arrange for their own stay there while the court decides the matter.
The commission notes that such Israeli detention leaves prolonged physiological effects on both the children and their families. It deprives the children of their right to education and creates a constant feeling of fear, anxiety, and deprivation.
Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children violates the provisions of international humanitarian law, which specifically addresses protecting the interests of children while setting the conditions of their detention.
Until 2009, when Military Order 1644 was promulgated by Israel in the West Bank, Israeli courts would try Palestinian children as young as 12 in the same courts as adults, and with no specific protections in place. Military Order 1644, however, set up separate military courts for the trials of children, and determined the Palestinian age of maturity to be 16. Israel does not classify Palestinians over the age of 16 as children, despite the age of maturity for Israelis being 18 years.
Deadly year for Palestinian children
At least 54 Palestinian children have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the occupied territories in 2022. Out of these, 35 were killed in the occupied West Bank, and 19 in the occupied Gaza strip. At least 958 Palestinian children were wounded by Israeli forces or settlers across the occupied territories in the same period, and over 750 have been arrested or detained.
Israel is known for its systematic #unchilding of Palestinian children.
Ahmad was captured at age 13 and is serving a 9.5 year sentence.Due to abuse and torture he developed multiple mental illnesses including schizophrenia.He has been in solitary since Nov2021#FreeAhmadManasrapic.twitter.com/q2W6fRnwI9
Some sources quote a higher number of children killed by Israeli forces this year in the West Bank. According to Defense of Children-Palestine, one of several Palestinian human rights groups the Israeli government has branded as “terrorists” and banned, “Israeli forces repeatedly and systematically shoot to kill Palestinian children in violation of international law.” It claims that 13 Palestinian children were killed in Jenin alone this year.
The youngest Palestinian child killed by Israeli forces was 7-year-old Rayan Suleiman. He was being chased by Israeli forces, who were threatening to arrest him near Bethlehem, when he died of cardiac arrest.
2022 was also the deadliest year for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since 2005, when the UN started recording daily deaths. According to the UN, more than 166 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank this year.
Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, has been particularly targeted by occupation forces this year under the so-called “break the wave” operations launched in March. In near daily raids, Israeli forces have killed 59 Palestinians in Jenin alone this year.
Apart from Israeli armed forces, illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank have also killed at least four Palestinians this year, and carried out numerous attacks on Palestinian villages, their farm lands, and their businesses.
