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The Israeli army, which launched large-scale attacks, continues its raids for a second day in the city of Tubas in the northern part of the West Bank on November 27, 2025. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
More than 32,000 Palestinians have been displaced by an ongoing Israeli offensive in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said Thursday, Anadolu reports.
The Israeli army launched a large-scale military offensive in the Jenin refugee camp on Jan. 21, which later spread to the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps and other areas in the northern West Bank.
Rolan Friedrich, Director of UNRWA Affairs for the West Bank, said the Israeli assault emptied the Jenin, Tulkarem, and Nur Shams refugee camps, displacing some 32,000 residents.
“And yet, even in these ghost towns that were once vibrant camps, Israeli forces still see the need to order demolitions for the sake of so-called ‘military purposes,” Friedrich added in a statement.
He noted that the Israeli authorities issued two mass demolition orders for over 190 buildings in the Jenin refugee camp, while 12 more buildings will be demolished in the upcoming days, which marks “the newest episode in continued efforts to re-engineer the topography of refugee camps in the northern West Bank.”
The UNRWA official said Israel’s systematic destruction violates the basic principles of international law and expands the army’s control over the refugee camps in the long term.
Friedrich called for the rebuilding of the refugee camps and the return of the displaced residents.
“They must not be trapped in interminable displacement,” he added.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army began another military campaign in the Tubas governorate in the northern West Bank, arresting over 60 Palestinians and injuring 10 others.
Alongside the two-year war in Gaza, where nearly 70,000 people have been killed, assaults by the army and illegal settlers in the West Bank have killed at least 1,083 Palestinians and injured about 11,000, while more than 20,500 have been detained, according to official Palestinian figures.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
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Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.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/O74hZCKKdpAOrcas discuss Genocide-supporting and complicit Zionists. Donald Trump, Keith Starmer, David Lammy, Rachel Reeves, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting are acknowledged as evil genocide-complicit and supporting cnuts.
Members of an international diplomatic delegation scramble for cover after coming under Israeli fire during a May 21, 2025 visit to the besieged Jenin refugee camp in the illegally occupied West Bank of Palestine. (Photo: Mohammad Ateeq/AFPTV/AFP via Getty Images)
Among those shot at were representatives of three nations that threatened “concrete actions” if Israel doesn’t end its assault and siege on Gaza and others that support a genocide case against the country.
Israeli occupation forces fired what they called “warning shots” at a large delegation of international diplomats visiting the besieged Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank on Wednesday, an incident many critics said was an attempt to intimidate countries that just two days earlier issued an ultimatum to stop annihilating Gaza and others that have joined a genocide case against Israel.
Palestinian officials were briefing a group of more than 20 diplomats about the crisis in the illegally occupied West Bank—where Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed and wounded thousands of Palestinians including hundreds of children since October 2023 while pushing ahead with massive land theft and colonization—when they came under fire.
According to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, the delegation “deviated” from the route approved by Israeli occupation authorities “and entered an area where they were not authorized to be,” prompting Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers to fire “warning shots to distance them away.”
“The IDF regrets the inconvenience caused,” the ministry added.
Israeli soldiers intentionally fired at a delegation of about 30 Arab & EU diplomats, ambassadors and consuls, visiting Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank. Israel claims “it was an accident” and that they fired “warning shots” because they “felt in danger”. Israel was trying to intimidate them.
Israeli media reported IDF troops fired shots in the air. However, video footage of the incident appears to show soldiers aiming their guns and firing straight ahead in the direction of the diplomats as they scrambled for cover. Israeli officials have often been caught lying about the actions of IDF troops in Palestine.
The delegation included diplomats from the European Union and countries including Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, France, India, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.
Another video documenting the moment the diplomats and representatives from over 24 countries and the EU were intimidated by Israeli soldiers as they gathered in front of the besieged Jenin Camp. pic.twitter.com/5uJTOE9pRi
On Monday, three of those countries—France, the United Kingdom, and Canada—issued a rare joint statement condemning Operation Gideon’s Chariots, the ongoing Israeli campaign to conquer and indefinitely occupy all of Gaza and ethnically cleanse much of its population.
On Tuesday, the U.K. announced it is suspending negotiations with Israel on a free trade agreement, explaining that “it is not possible to advance discussions on a new, upgraded FTA” with a government “that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant, his former defense minister, are wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza including extermination and forced starvation.
The U.K. additionally sanctioned three far-right Israeli extremists, including settler leader Daniella Weiss, as well as three illegal settlement outposts and two groups “that have supported, incited, and promoted violence against Palestinian communities in the West Bank.”
Also on Tuesday, European Commission Vice President Kaja Kallas—who is the E.U.’s foreign policy chief—said the 27-nation bloc would review its political and economic agreement with Israel in light of the “catastrophic” situation in Gaza.
Brazil, Chile, China, Egypt, Jordan, Mexico, Spain, and Turkey have either joined or expressed support for the South Africa-led genocide case against Israel currently before the International Court of Justice—which last year found that Israel’s 58-year occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza is an illegal form of apartheid that must be ended as soon as possible.
France's Foreign Minister confirms that Israeli soldiers shot at EU ambassadors and diplomats in Jenin.
Had any other country done this, it would have been considered an act of war. Imagine if Russia had done this?
Israel’s 592-day assault and siege on Gaza has left more than 189,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing and over 2 million others forcibly displaced, starved, or sickened, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned what it called Wednesday’s “heinous crime” against the diplomats.
“The delegation was undertaking an official mission to observe and assess the humanitarian situation and document the ongoing violations perpetrated by the occupying forces against the Palestinian people,” the ministry said. “This deliberate and unlawful act constitutes a blatant and grave breach of international law and of the fundamental principles of diplomatic relations as enshrined in the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.”
Kallas said Wednesday that “any threats on diplomats’ lives are unacceptable.”
“Israel is also a signatory to the Vienna Convention, I mean the obligation to guarantee the security of all foreign diplomats,” Kallas noted. “We definitely call on Israel to investigate this incident and also hold accountable [those] who are responsible for this.”
The governments of other countries whose diplomats were targeted on Wednesday condemned the incident, with some, including France and Italy, summoning their Israeli ambassadors.
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.
A father cries while carrying the body of his child wrapped in a blood-stained shroud west of Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, on January 14, 2025. (Photo: Youssef Alzanoun/Middle East Images via AFP via Getty Images)
“As a cease-fire in Gaza is near, Israel is expanding its assault on the West Bank,” said one expert. “It was always a war on Palestinian existence.”
As negotiators in Qatar navigated the “final stage” of a cease-fire agreement to end the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip, Israel’s forces on Tuesday continued to kill Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave and the illegally occupied West Bank.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have killed at least 46,645 Palestinians in Gaza and wounded 110,012, with over 10,000 others missing, health officials said Tuesday. The true death toll could be much higher. A peer-reviewed analysis published last week in The Lancetfound that the official tally through last June was likely a 41% undercount.
The Palestinian National Authority’s news agency WAFA reported Tuesday that IDF shelling killed at least two civilians at the Nuseirat refugee camp and a correspondent in Gaza City “said that Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a house in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, north of Gaza City, and another house in the Manara neighborhood, south of Khan Younis City, killing several civilians and injuring others.”
According to multiple media outlets, Israeli forces also killed at least 13 people in an attack on a home in Deir al-Balah.
Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its assault on Gaza and in November the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister, Yoav Gallant, as well as Hamas leader Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri.
In addition to waging war on Gaza over the past 15 months, Israel has stepped up its military activity in the West Bank—where a Tuesday strike on the Jenin refugee camp killed at least six Palestinians and wounded several others. The Times of Israel reported that “the IDF said it carried out the strike in a joint operation with the Shin Bet, without immediately providing further information.”
The Israeli newspaper also noted that “on Tuesday evening, as on many previous Tuesday nights, thousands gather for a unity rally of prayer and song held in Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square,” while hundreds of right-wing demonstrators blocked “an intersection in central Jerusalem, in protest of the ongoing hostage negotiations between Israel and Hamas.”
According to a draft obtained by The Associated Press, the first part of the three-stage deal would involve a halt to the fighting, both sides releasing captives, displaced Palestinians in Gaza returning home, and more humanitarian aid entering the strip.
Phase two would feature a declaration of “sustainable calm” and Hamas freeing more hostages in exchange for additional Palestinian prisoners and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, AP reported. The third part would include an exchange of bodies, a reconstruction plan for the strip—where civilian infrastructure is in ruins—and the reopening of border crossings.
“The terms of the deal being negotiated are largely consistent with what was on the table last May when outgoing President Joe Biden first announced it. Biden allowed Netanyahu to steamroll him for months—rewarding Israel with billions of dollars in arms transfers and political support after rejecting that cease-fire deal,” Jeremy Scahill detailed at Drop Site News.
The latest cease-fire talks come as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump prepares for his inauguration next Monday. The Republican has been pushing for a resolution to Israel’s assault on Gaza—or at least an appearance of one—before he returns to office.
“The fact that Trump emerged as the decisive player in pushing a potential cease-fire forward is evidence that Biden never used the full powers available to a sitting U.S. president to seal the deal in the summer,” wrote Scahill. “While Trump has publicly repeated his threat that he will ‘unleash hell’ on Hamas if the Israeli hostages are not freed, his pressure has not been solely focused on Hamas; Trump and his aides have made clear to Netanyahu that the president-elect expects Israel to comply with his demands, too.”
Netanyahu on Tuesday told hostages’ families that “he is willing to agree to a prolonged cease-fire Gaza in exchange for their return,” according toHaaretz. Later Tuesday, The Times of Israel reported that the prime minister was meeting with “Israel’s hostage negotiation team and with members of Israel’s security establishment,” and expected negotiations to go through the night.
Even if a deal is reached regarding Gaza, some experts fear the bloodshed will continue there and in the West Bank
“There will possibly be an end to the Gaza war, but there will be now another war in the West Bank,” Sami Al-Arian, a Palestinian analyst and director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, told Scahill. “It may not be on the same scale, but it would be as vicious from the settlers, from the Netanyahu government.”
Gazan writer and analyst Muhammad Shehada wrote for the U.S.-based Center for International Policy last week that a senior Arab official told him the U.S. president-elect asked the Qataris and Egyptians to finalize a deal before he takes office but the Israeli prime minister “is not budging while at the same time issuing false positive statements of a breakthrough and progress to buy time and pretend to seek a deal until Trump is in office, where Netanyahu can trade the Gaza war for something big in the West Bank.”
Sharing on social media a video of the Tuesday strike on Jenin, Middle East expert Assal Rad said that “as a cease-fire in Gaza is near, Israel is expanding its assault on the West Bank. The Gaza genocide is only the most recent atrocity Israel—with the help of the U.S.—has carried out against Palestinians. The same story for 77+ years. It was always a war on Palestinian existence.”
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces use tear gas to disperse a protest against their security operation, in Jenin in the Israel-occupied West Bank, on December 16, 2024 [JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images]
The latest news about the Palestinian Authority’s so-called “Protecting the Homeland” operation in the Jenin refugee camp paints a grim picture. Nine Palestinians have been killed in the ongoing crackdown which began on 5 December, including a young journalist, Shatha Al-Sabbagh.
The campaign, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, has, not surpisingly, received a stamp of approval from the Israeli occupation army, which seems content with the PA’s performance. Meanwhile, Israel’s Channel 14confirmed that the occupation regime has issued a clear deadline for the PA to finish the task of effectively eradicating what remains of legitimate resistance in Jenin, in the name of ending “lawlessness” and apprehending “outlaws”.
It is an irony that has become all too familiar: the Palestinian entity that was supposed to represent the will of the people and lead them towards freedom has become complicit in crushing resistance in one of the most marginalised and impoverished areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, all while serving the interests of the occupation state. This is the heart of the Palestinian paradox in the West Bank.
For years, the PA has demanded unflinching obedience from the Palestinian people in the name of preparing Palestine for sovereignty and statehood. Yet, as the years have passed, this pledge has slipped further and further away. In its place, the PA has become complicit in the expansion of Israel’s territorial control and the erosion of Palestinian rights. This might be a difficult conclusion to digest, but the killing of innocent Palestinians in Jenin at the hands of Palestinian security forces, while Israel and its settlers are cracking down on Palestinians elsewhere in the West Bank, should be all the proof needed to support such a conclusion.
Moreover, the PA’s strategy of appeasing Israel through “security coordination” has done little to hinder Israel’s systematic land grab and the continued construction of illegal settlements. On the contrary, such “coordination” has emboldened Israel and its lawless settlers.
The PA has become a tool of the Israeli occupation
What is perhaps more damning is the fact that the PA has often become an active participant in the Israeli oppression of Palestinians, as is happening in Jenin today. In its role as an enforcer of Israeli policies, the PA has become a tool of the Israeli occupation, tasked with quelling political dissent and silencing critics.
The latest operation in Jenin is a clear manifestation of how Israel uses the PA to do its dirty work. The Jenin refugee camp, an area of less than half a square kilometre, has always been a symbol of Palestinian resistance. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, Israel has raided Jenin 80 times in the past year alone, killing at least 220 Palestinians and wounding hundreds more. Yet, Jenin remains unbowed. To now see the PA working in concert with the Israeli army to break the will of Jenin’s 23,000 inhabitants is a deeply painful reality for most Palestinians.
What complicates this crisis even further is the silence of many Palestinian intellectuals, both in the West Bank and the diaspora, who have failed to confront the PA with the same vigour with which they criticise the Israeli occupation. Why have so many prominent voices, intellectuals and political analysts remained mute on the issue of the PA’s betrayal of the Palestinian struggle?
The answer lies in a complex mixture of fear, political pragmatism and historical inertia. For decades, the PA has maintained a stranglehold on the political landscape of Palestinian life. It controls the levers of power, and anyone who dares to challenge its authority risks being silenced, through arrests, imprisonment, torture or worse. Palestinian intellectuals, particularly those in the West Bank, are all too aware of this reality.
Moreover, there is a deep sense of paralysis within the Palestinian intellectual community in the occupied West Bank, in part due to their leadership’s failure to confront Israel over the ongoing genocide in Gaza. But there is more to this ongoing paralysis.
For years, the PA has framed itself as the “sole legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people. Many intellectuals who would normally criticise Israel’s occupation are unwilling to take on the PA for fear of further fragmenting the Palestinians. There is a deep-seated belief among some that a public confrontation with the PA would lead to greater disunity, which could play into Israel’s hands.
This political pragmatism comes at a heavy cost. While many Palestinian intellectuals hesitate to criticise the PA, they are forced into a position of complicity with its actions. The PA’s betrayal of the Palestinian cause is no longer a matter of debate, it is a fact. Yet, by failing to confront this betrayal head-on, intellectuals and activists alike risk forfeiting their moral credibility.
The betrayal of the PA has been laid bare for all to see
In the face of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and unprecedentedly-violent crackdowns on Palestinians in the West Bank, the betrayal of the PA has been laid bare for all to see. Its willingness to assist in the subjugation of Palestinians in the West Bank, while pretending to represent them, has exposed the institution like never before.
Can the PA be saved? The answer may not even matter. What matters is whether the Palestinian people, with their collective will and resistance, can liberate themselves from Israel’s settler colonialism and the moral corruption of their self-proclaimed leadership. The events of the coming weeks and months will be decisive.
Shatha al-Sabbagh was shot in the head by a sniper a day after interviewing victims of the Palestinian Authority’s security campaign in the Jenin refugee camp.
A sniper from the Palestinian Authority’s security forces killed female journalist Shatha al-Sabbagh in Jenin refugee camp on Saturday, December 28. Shatha (22) was on her way to a grocery shop close to her house along with her two little nephews, her mother, and a sister-in-law, when the sniper shot her in the head, according to Shatha’s mother, who witnessed the incident.
The bereaved mother held the Palestinian Authority’s security forces fully accountable for murdering her daughter. She also considered the incident a targeted assassination as a barrage of bullets was fired by the security forces at people in the street, who tried to rescue Shatha, including her mother.
Shatha’s mother believes that her daughter was killed deliberately because the day before her death, she had interviewed families in Jenin refugee camp as part of a report. Among the people she interviewed was the family of a child who was killed by the PA’s security forces, and a family whose house was set on fire by the forces during its ongoing campaign against the camp.
Shatha’s father also said during an interview with the local news platform Falasteen Post that the street where they live and where Shatha was killed, has been under full control of the PA’s security forces for over 26 days, and that no resistance fighters have been present there during that entire period. Her father’s testimony refuted the claims of the PA’s security forces, who claimed that Shatha was killed by one of the fighters affiliated with Jenin Brigade.
Shatha’s brother-in-law, Suhaib Merei, whose two little children, his sister, and his mother-in-law (Shatha’s mother) were with Shatha when she was shot, reiterated the same circumstances about the killing incident. Merei added that the sniper was only 20 meters away from where Shatha and the rest of family were standing.
He added that unlike the rest of the camp, where the electricity has been cut off by the PA for around one month, the street lights were working because the street has remained under the control of the PA’s security forces since the campaign began. Therefore, the sniper was able to distinguish that those walking were three women with two babies.
For his part, the spokesperson of the PA security forces, Anwar Rajab, condemned the killing of Shatha and accused “outlaws” of being responsible for the crime, a claim which has been refuted by Shatha’s family.
On Monday, December 30, Rajab refused to have a discussion with Shatha’s mother on Al Jazeera Mubasher. Once he saw her on the air, he withdrew from the interview. Rajab justified his withdrawal and refusal to confront Shatha’s mother by saying that he was not informed that she would be part of the interview. The Palestinian security official accused Al Jazeera of being unprofessional, and further explained that he was unwilling to discuss anything about the incident with Shatha’s mother considering her current emotional condition.
PA’s siege of Jenin refugee camp
The PA began a large-scale security campaign in Jenin refugee camp in early December, which explicitly aims at prosecuting what the PA calls “outlaws”. Though, according to analysts and Palestinian grassroots, the campaign seeks to crush resistance groups within the camp in collaboration with the United States and Israel.
Residents of Jenin refugee camp have accused the PA’s security forces of killing six Palestinian citizens in the camp since the beginning of their campaign. The murdered citizens include Mohammad al-Amer (12), Majd Zeidan (16), Ribhi Shalabi (19), Shatha Sbaagh (22), Mohammad Abu Libdeh (25), and Yazeed Jaysah (28).
Residents have also reported that as part of their campaign PA’s security forces have shut off water and electricity in several areas. Some have reported that houses have been targeted by rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and set on fire by the forces. People in the camp labeled the stifling siege imposed on them as a “collective punishment”.
It is worth mentioning that the PA has reportedly prohibited foreign media outlets from entering the camp and that all reports coming out from there are being posted online by activists, journalists, and residents, including the families of the victims, or via local media outlets.
Meanwhile, the PA mourned five personnel of its security forces stating that they were killed in clashes with “outlaws” during the campaign carried out in Jenin refugee camp.
In an attempt to cover up the crimes committed in the camp, the PA’s government institutions have allegedly called their staff to participate in demonstrations to show support for the security campaign against Jenin refugee camp. In addition, videos attributed to some Palestinian security personnel were posted online, showing them bragging about verbally and physically abusing Palestinian citizens, who reportedly criticized the PA’s campaign in Jenin on social media networks.
Despite the fact that Israel has violated all peace treaties signed with the PA, including the Oslo Accords for decades, the PA has continued to submit to Israel’s endeavors in the West Bank. The ongoing campaign in the Jenin camp, seemingly on behalf of the Israeli Occupation Forces which are simultaneously carrying out the genocide in Gaza, has further eroded the PA’s legitimacy among the Palestinian people as a body advocating for the Palestinian people and their liberation.
