Jerusalem (EFE).- From burning two mosques in occupied West Bank villages to forcing Palestinian women to give birth in ambulances due to military roadblocks, the terror instilled by Israeli settlers continues to escalate, while the Israeli military vows to ramp up its offensive in the area.
The situation in the West Bank finally reached a boiling point on Friday following an armed clash in the north of the region, in the village of Tell (Nablus Governorate), in which four Palestinian civilians, a settler authorized to carry weapons and an Israeli soldier were killed.
Since then, the Israel Defense Forces has moved in with overwhelming force and «settler militias,» a term used by as many as 20 Israeli NGOs, have taken advantage of the situation to enter Palestinian villages, assault residents and set fire to their homes and belongings.
Burned-down mosques and Palestinian women giving birth in ambulances
In the early hours of Sunday morning, groups of Jewish radicals set fire to two mosques, one in Qusra, south of Nablus, and another in Kur, south of Tulkarem, both in the northern West Bank.
On the walls of the latter, they wrote, «Shedding Jewish blood does not come without a price.»
The Israeli military has not reported the arrest of any individuals involved in recent attacks on Palestinians.
The IDF has maintained its tight military siege of the Nablus governorate, forcing at least two pregnant women to give birth in ambulances so far, according to a report by the Israeli NGO Physicians for Human Rights on Sunday.
Dozens of detentions and demolitions
As of Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz stated that the army’s “counterterrorism” operations in the occupied West Bank would be expanded in the coming weeks. The intensification of deployment was announced shortly beforehand by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to fly to Washington soon to meet United States President Donald Trump at the White House.
However, on Sunday, the IDF continued to operate within Palestinian territories. While they claimed to have detained 70 Palestinians and interrogated «hundreds» on Saturday, on Sunday they arrested at least 24 in Nablus and 16 in Tulkarm and Jenin, according to the official Palestinian news agency WAFA.
Palestinian authorities also denounced the demolition on Sunday of a house under construction in the village of Jalbun, east of Jenin, as well as the cordoning off of the home in Tell, where the Palestinian involved in Friday’s armed clash lived and the access ban imposed on family members.
Israeli commitment to new settlements
Following Friday’s armed incident, Netanyahu pledged to “accelerate the regulatory process for agricultural exploitation farms” run by Israeli settlers in the vicinity of Tell. These farms are a preliminary step towards formalizing settlements.
On Sunday, Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli Finance Minister and a settler and supremacist, confirmed that Israel will build 763 new housing units in the Eli settlement, located south of Nablus.
Meanwhile, groups of Israeli settlers erected three «outposts» around Tell; according to the Israeli NGO Peace Now, all three structures are located in Area B of the West Bank, which is outside Israeli administrative control.
Palestinian authority calls for «urgent international action»
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called for «urgent international action» to stop the Israeli military offensive and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian leader sent letters to several Arab leaders, as well as to leaders of friendly countries, the European Union, the secretary-general of the Arab League and the president of the United Nations Security Council.
Abbas argued that the situation is no longer one of isolated incidents, but rather a “systematic Israeli policy” to impose a fait accompli through settlement expansion and the weakening of the Palestinian Authority, a policy that, in his view, undermines the prospects for a two-state solution.
As of Sunday, the Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, founded in 2004 by army veterans, released a statement saying that the events in the occupied West Bank are not «a random escalation,» but rather part of a strategy in which «settlers attack Palestinians knowing that the army will defend them.»EFE
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