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SvennoJ on 17 January 2024
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Israel conducts raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank

Our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues and local media are reporting widespread raids and arrests across the occupied West Bank tonight. The most intense of these are in the Tulkarem camp, with reports of dozens of Palestinians being arrested since an Israeli raid there began 23 hours ago.

Israeli forces have also raided the city of Qalqilya, resulting in clashes with Palestinians.

Raids and arrests have also been reported in the following locations:

  • 46 people were arrested from one family in Tkoo’ village in Bethlehem
  • Several villages were raided in the Nablus Governorate
  • A man has been arrested in the town of Balaa, east of Tulkarem
  • Two men were shot during raids in the Ramallah, el-Bireh and al-Amari camp areas
  • Israeli forces arrested a man in the town of Beit Rima, northwest of Ramallah
  • A former prisoner was arrested in the town of Kafr ad-Dik, west of the city of Salfit
  • Two men were arrested from al-Jalama, northeast of Jenin
  • Israeli police summoned eight men from the town of Qatana, northwest of occupied Jerusalem, for questioning

Australian foreign minister ‘concerned’ by settler violence in West Bank

Penny Wong has visited the occupied West Bank, meeting with Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and Palestinians affected by settler violence. “Australia is deeply concerned by ongoing settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Wong said in a post on X.

The UN’s humanitarian agency OCHA says that it has recorded 431 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians since October 7. “In nearly half of all recorded incidents after 7 October, Israeli forces were either accompanying or reported to be supporting the attackers,” OCHA said.



UN calls for independent probe of Israel’s killings of Palestinians in occupied West Bank

The Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said that a spate of killings of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has raised concerns of “unlawful” lethal attacks by the Israeli military.

In a post on social media, OHCHR said Israeli forces are escalating operations in the occupied territory and that they had killed nine people on Wednesday, three of them children, in an air strike on a vehicle near Balata refugee camp in Nablus, and a second air strike in the Tulkarem refugee camp.

“Unlawful killings of Palestinians must end,” the OHCHR’s Palestine office said on social media. “Israel must ensure a prompt, independent and effective investigation” of the killings, as “according to initial information, both cases raise concerns of unlawful killings”, it said.



Lack of conditions on US aid to Israel ‘exceptionally concerning’: Advocate

Annie Shiel, US advocacy director at the Civilians in Conflict (CIVIC) organisation, says Congress should step in to ensure the implementation of policies and laws that prohibit arms transfers to human rights abusers.

But the US Senate blocked a resolution on Tuesday that would have required the State Department to produce a report on possible rights violations by Israel in Gaza. “It’s exceptionally concerning that US officials have repeatedly said there are ‘no conditions’ and ‘no red lines’ on US assistance to Israel, and that the US is not assessing Israeli compliance with international humanitarian law,” Shiel told Al Jazeera.

“The Biden administration’s own Conventional Arms Transfer policy prohibits the transfer of arms where the United States assesses it is ‘more likely than not’ that the arms will be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law.”