International Solidarity Movement

Israel Targets Palestinian Youth in the West Bank

Nablus – West Bank By: Diana Khwaelid

What will happen to the next generation of youth if Israel continues to target and kill Palestinian children?

The Palestinian people are enduring a difficult period, one that mirrors the challenges faced during the First and Second Intifadas, perhaps even more so. This struggle has only intensified since Israel launched its war of annihilation on Gaza on October 7, which continues to this day. Gaza has been reduced to a wasteland, unfit for human habitation. Meanwhile, the West Bank remains in a state of anticipation. Though the West Bank’s various cities, villages, and refugee camps have already provided dozens of martyrs, prisoners, and the wounded, Israel’s escalation of its operations threatens to turn the West Bank into yet another devastated area.

*Nablus* In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli occupation forces launched several incursions. Within less than a week, they stormed refugee camps twice, resulting in the deaths of two Palestinians.

The first martyr, Mohammed Amer, an 18-year-old from Balata Camp, was shot dead by Israeli forces on January 4 during their raid of the camp. Mohammed was the sole male in his family, leaving behind seven sisters.

The second martyr, 17-year-old Moataz Al-Madani from Askar Camp, was also killed by Israeli forces on the night of January 6, during a raid in his camp. Today, the people of Askar mourned his death, chanting slogans of anger, revenge, and resistance.

*Israel’s Plan to Erase the Palestinian Refugee Issue* Israel’s campaign to dismantle Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank, particularly in the north, began nearly two years ago in early 2023. The campaign intensified in August 2024 under the name “Operation Summer Camps.” Israeli forces were stationed in refugee camps in Tulkarem, Nablus, Jenin, Tubas, Jericho, and Qalqilya.

Dozens of Palestinians have been killed, with Tulkarem and Jenin cities witnessing the highest number of martyrs, according to the Palestinian Health Organization. Refugee camps in Nablus, including Balata and Askar, have been frequent targets of Israeli occupation forces.

*Israel Opens War on the Palestinians* According to the Palestinian Health Department’s statistics, at least 94 martyrs have fallen in Nablus since the beginning of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The total number of martyrs in the West Bank has reached 838, of which 172 are children, 16 are women, and 12 are elderly. Furthermore, 179 bodies are being held by Israeli forces.

From the outset of the war in Gaza, Israel demonstrated that it makes no distinction between its targets—no one, whether young or old, male or female, is spared. This indiscriminate violence has been evident in both Gaza and the West Bank, creating a pervasive atmosphere of fear and insecurity among Palestinians. They no longer feel safe in their own homes. The ongoing state of tension, anxiety, and daily danger has become an inescapable reality for Palestinians living under occupation.

Saturday Settler Incursion in Al-Khalil

In the afternoon of December 28, six soldiers ushered a group of activists and journalists away from the usually bustling Bani Dar neighborhood in Al Khalil. This show of force came to no surprise. For over two decades, Occupation Forces have entirely cleared neighborhoods in the Old City within Al Khalil under the false pretenses of guided tours for illegal Israeli settlers.

Within a half hour, a group of around fifty soldiers assembled to guard the group of three dozen settlers. For the next hour, Palestinians were restricted from walking near the incursion, and almost all the shops in the Old City were forced to close.

The weekly settler and military incursion is a major disruption for Palestinians in the historic city. It is a demonstration of intimidation and harassment, a theatrical show of force with the intention to further dispossess local Palestinians. For the duration of the tour, the souq (market), the main economic infrastructure for Palestinians, especially since the closure of Shuhada Street, essentially becomes a closed military zone for settlers.

The tour, mostly in Hebrew and some English, spouts lies of a history discounting Palestinian existence. A false history is proselytized to the group of settlers, denying the years of well documented peaceful coexistence between different groups in the city prior to 1948, as well as the constant violence enacted on Palistinian lives since.

It seemed like the whole Palestinian neighbourhood closed their doors and held their breath for the duration of the march. A crowd assembled as the armed soldiers opened the settlement gate, and shepherded the tour safely back inside. Before closing the gates again, the soldier made a joke—another mockery to add to the intimidation. Slowly, some shops opened back up. People started using their beloved roads. Many, however, will always walk carefully, living in fear of the occupation that wants to remove them.

‘I’m still open’ – against the odds in al Khalil

December 30 – Al Khalil (Hebron)

By Birdie

This week has been a bad one for al Amal. Soldiers issued new threats to him, a souvenir-shop owner on the main drag in the Old City of Hebron (al Khalil), and his neighbours demanding that they close. And today, the mosque director refused to be searched when going through the checkpoint, and was beaten up by the military so badly he needed hospitalisation. Things are escalating for al Amal and the traders in the Old City. Again.
Al Amal’s shop is deep in the Old City – the beautiful Mamluk and Ottoman stone alleys that are the heart of many of Palestine’s ancient cities: Old Jerusalem, Nablus, Bethlehem and al Khalil. They are the souk – lined with stores which in reasonable times are bustling with life, leisure, and commerce. Al Amal’s store is within 100 metres of the holy place: the al Ibrahimi Mosque, also known as the Cave of the Patriarchs, that contains the ostensible tombs of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives. It might be considered a favourable location. Sadly, that proximity is not an advantage. Access to the holy place is only through a fearsome checkpoint, because it is in the fenced-off, gated, and heavily-guarded area of the Jewish settlement in Hebron.
The soldiers’ threats are new, but the experience is familiar to al Amal. His family’s shop has been forcibly closed and reopened more than once. They have had a shop in al Khalil for multiple generations. His grandfather started a souvenir and crafts shop in As-Sahle Street. It’s not there any more. There are no shops there any more. They were all closed and none of their previous owners can access them, because As-Sahle street is in the settlement. And no one who doesn’t live in the settlement – except tourists and those with special dispensation– is allowed in through the checkpoints that guard the self-imposed ghetto that is the settlement.
Back in 2000, al Amal tells me, during the intifada all the shops there were closed, more than 1,800. Reopening them was a real ordeal (in the face is settler harassment) and required permits and support from local authorities and international organisations, but after 7 October 2023, the closures were demanded again, this time for good. And the current, concrete checkpoint with its grey corridors of hell – all clanging metal gates, glassed-off inspection point, and electric cattle turnstiles was erected.
But Al Amal was not going to give up. Since the age of 10 he has been doing business in al Khalil, latterly working in the family shop to help support his five sisters and two brothers.
So earlier this year he opened a new, small boutique on this side of the checkpoint, selling quality fabrics, bags, and kuffiehs. And now the threat of forced closure is being replayed.
“Three or four soldiers came to the Old City and told us to close. I asked them why. There is no reason,” reports al Amal. “I told them, I want to see formal papers ordering the closure; you want to arrest me, arrest me! So the soldier pushed my table of goods back into the shop. I asked, What do you want from me?”
The next day, Thursday, the soldiers came back and again demanded, “From the checkpoint up to here, the shops must close.” That’s seven or eight more businesses to close.
The rumour is, I’m told, that they’re planning to move the checkpoint itself up the street to that corner, thus expanding the gated settlement further. In the meantime, the store holders are afraid, angry, and ever more insecure.
Al Amal is dismayed, but certain of his position. “I’m still open. I will keep resisting,” he says. For him keeping the shop open is not about making good money, it is more about making a stand against oppression and occupation and maintaining a presence in the place. “I was born here; I grew up here; this is my land. It’s a holy land for us.”
Business has actually been very bad. The war has kept tourists away, and this week’s harassment also keeps locals away, not wanting to be where trouble might catch up with them. But al Amal is not giving up. He urges me to tell people to come. “It’s safe,” he says. And for tourists that is true. The shopkeepers are desperate for the business.
Al Amal speaks for many of them when he says: “Even if there’s no business we have to keep the shop open.” Their presence here is about sumud: steadfastness. Existence is resistance. They are determined not to allow the occupation to humiliate and force Palestinian people to leave.

Nine martyrs in Tulkarem: who will hold Israel accountable?

Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, in the West Bank, in Syria, and in Lebanon. Who will hold them accountable for their crimes?

By Diana Khwaelid | December 27, 2024 | Tulkarem, West Bank 

Nine Palestinian were martyred last week in Tulkarem and neighbouring cities during an Israeli military operation in refugee camps in the West Bank. On December 24, Israel launched a military campaign in several cities and camps in the northern West Bank, including Tamoun in Tubas city, Al-Ain camp in Nablus, al-Amari camp in Ramallah, Qalqilya and Tulkarem.

Nine morgue drawers in a small room. In seven of them, bodies wrapped in fabric are visible. Another one has its door already closed, and a man is midway through closing the door of another one. — The bodies of the nine Palestinian martyrs in the morgue.

In the city of Tulkarem, the Israeli occupation’s military operation destroyed roads and infrastructure as well as houses and private property in the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps. The operation lasted for more than 43 consecutive hours, during which the occupation killed nine Palestinians, including two women and a child.

Tulkarem Camp:

A street bordered by buildings on both sides, turned into a mud road littered with debris and with very large puddles of water. In the background, children are playing. On the right, some Palestinian inhabitants are clearing debris off the road. — Destruction in the Tulkarem camp after the Israeli incursion.

Israeli occupation bulldozers destroyed much of the camp’s infrastructure, which had already been severely damaged during the previous Israeli military incursions. They also targeted the camp citizens’ property, including shops, cars, and houses. Palestinian inhabitants of the Tulkarem camp often describe it as having become a microcosm of what is happening in Gaza.

A city road bordered by palm trees, with two large armoured military vehicles rolling towards the left. — Military vehicles during the Israeli incursion in Tulkarem.

The municipality and the Palestinian Civil Defense crews are trying to repair the destroyed infrastructure, streets, houses, and water pipes — as much as is possible.

Nur shams camp:

A city road with an armoured military car advancing towards the camera, followed by a large tank and a bulldozer (rolling besides the road). — The Israeli incursion in Nur Shams camp.

In the Nur Shams camp, the Israeli occupation bulldozers destroyed the property of citizens along al-Sikka Street-Nablus Street and several shops, including a pharmacy. The Israeli incursion has made the day-to-day unlivable for the residents of the camps in Tulkarm and Nur Shams.

In the past year, the Israeli occupation has been brutally targeting Palestinian populations. Military operations waged by Israel in the West Bank camps threaten the future of Palestinian refugees and their homes.

A young girl stands in the doorway of a house that is partially destroyed. Directly in front of her, the street is reduced to large piles of rubble. — A young Palestinian girl in her home in Tulkarem.

The National Action factions declared a state of mourning for the city of Tulkarem following these massacres in both Tulkarem and Nur Shams refugee camps. The nine martyrs were mourned, seven of them from Tulkarem camp, another from Nur Shams camp and another in the town of Gavin. They added: “An Israeli warplane targeted Palestinians in the Tulkarm camp, paying no attention to children playing or being near their homes, nor to women.”

A young man is lying dead on a red stretcher on the ground. There is a crowd around him, including one woman with her back turned to the camera kneeling over him with her hands on his chest. — Farewell to one of the young martyrs.

The names of the martyrs are Mrs. Khawla Abdo, Baraa Al Attar, Fathi Salem, Mahmin Al- Akhras, Mahmoud Amar, Ahmed Amarna, Omran Haroun, Qusay Okasha, Jumaa Salem.

A woman is raising her arms to the sky, looking devastated. Several people stand behind her, including an oler woman who is crying. They are standing in a city street. — The sister of the martyr Fathi Salem mourns her brother.

According to the Palestinian Health Organization and the Shirin Abu Akila Observatory, the number of Palestinian martyrs in the West Bank since October 7 has reached 835 martyrs, 196 of which in Tulkarem.

The Crime Scene Repeats

By Diana Khwaelid | December 19, 2024

Six Palestinians were killed in Israeli operations in Tulkarem and Balata camps in less than three hours on the morning of Thursday 19 December.

Four Palestinian youths were killed by Israeli forces in Tulkarem camp, in the latest of a string of outrages there.

At noon on Thursday 19 December, a civilian car carrying four Palestinians in the Al-Balawneh neighborhood of Tulkarem Camp exploded, killing the four passengers.

Eyewitnesses from Balawneh said that at around 1:30pm they heard the blast and saw a car in flames with four young men inside.

Thaer Sheikh Ali was at home at the time of the explosion. He describes it as powerful. He went out to see what happened, and says, “The bodies of the martyrs in the car were completely burned to the point that their shapes changed.” He adds that he saw an injured Palestinian on the ground, who was then taken to hospital.

Photo: Farewell to the martyrs in the refrigerators

According to the Palestinian eyewitnesses, they tried hard to extinguish the flames. Palestinian medical teams rushed to the scene to retrieve the bodies of the four martyrs from inside the car.

Balawneh is a busy neighborhood bustling with Palestinian residents and houses. That did not prevent the occupation forces from targeting the car.

On the same day, the Israeli occupation forces stormed Tulkarem with bulldozers in a five-hour destruction operation in both Balawneh and Okasha neighborhoods.

The Tulkarem refugee camp in Tulkarem City has seen many killings by the occupation forces, especially since 7 October last year. The lengthening list of martyrs causes deep sadness in the camp. These latest four are described as “the most beautiful ornaments of the camp”.

The National Action factions in the city of Tulkarem declared a period of mourning across the city for the four youths.

Balata Camp

On the same Thursday morning, the Israeli occupation forces stormed the Balata camp east of the city of Nablus to arrest a Palestinian militant in the camp. They failed, but Israeli snipers, while stationed in the camp, opened fire on unarmed civilians in the camp – killing, according to the Palestinian Health Organization, two Palestinians, including 80-year-old elderly woman. These are two more martyrs in the intensive attacks on this part of the West Bank.