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SvennoJ on 11 February 2024
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Hebron women recount horrors in Israeli detention

Palestinian women from Hebron area in the occupied West Bank, arrested in late October last year and released on November 30 in the Israel-Hamas deal, faced extreme violence and threats of rape in detention, according to testimonies collected by the Israeli rights group B’Tselem.

“The women were removed from their homes violently, in the middle of the night, blindfolded and painfully handcuffed. They were then transferred between several prisons. Every transfer came with beating, swearing, and threats to themselves and their families, including threats of rape. The women were humiliatingly strip-searched several times,” the group said. It added that the holding conditions in all the prisons and detention facilities were “inhumane”, where the little food they were given was of poor quality, and they had to beg for drinking water.

“The cells were extremely small, crowded and filthy, and there was no way to clean them. Only some had mattresses, but these were extremely dirty, and the women were not given blankets or warm clothes. The toilets in the cell were exposed, even to people outside the cell, and requests for sanitary pads were repeatedly denied,” the group added.

Israel deports Palestinian woman arrested in West Bank to Gaza Strip

Israeli forces have deported a Palestinian woman to the Gaza Strip, less than two weeks after arresting her from a military checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian news agency, WAFA. Siqal Yousef Qaddoum, 51, is a journalist with Palestine TV. Although she was born in Gaza, Qaddoum had lived for many years in the town of al-Shuyoukh, northeast of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Prisoners’ Club said that Qaddoum was arrested on February 1 at a checkpoint near Ramallah, and was transferred to Hasharon Prison, then to Damon Prison. She was deported via the southern Karem Abu Salem crossing.

Nearly 7,000 Palestinians arrested in occupied West Bank since October 7: Advocacy group

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that Israeli forces have arrested 6,950 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 7. Israel refuses to give information on the number and fate of those it has arrested from the Gaza Strip.


A Palestinian woman flashes a V-sign towards Israeli troops during an army raid in the Tulkarem refugee camp, occupied West Bank

Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinian vehicles with stones, tear gas driver in occupied West Bank

About two dozen illegal Israeli settlers have hurled stones at Palestinian cars near the occupied West Bank village of Bizzariya, northwest of Nablus, according to Israeli human rights group Yesh Din. The settlers smashed a vehicle’s windshield and tear-gassed the Palestinian driver who had to be taken to hospital for treatment.


Israeli settlers march from Tapuach Junction to the Israeli settler outpost of Evyatar in the Israeli-occupied West Bank

Israel using war on Gaza to fast track construction of illegal settlements

A report by Israeli daily Haaretz says that the government is using the war on the Gaza Strip as a distraction to build more settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. “We know that these settlements are illegal under international law,” said Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands, speaking from occupied East Jerusalem. According to Ir Amim, an Israeli NGO that monitors illegal settlement activity, 17 settlement plans have been advanced since October 7, or about 8,000 housing units. "Four plans have been approved since October 7 – that’s 3,700 housing units,” Challands said.

“What Ir Amim say is going on is that the government is using the war to basically fast track settlement construction,” he went on to say. “This is an incredibly bureaucratic procedure most of the time and involves local planning committees, municipal housing authorities, planning reviews, tender processes, etc. “If the government feels that any of these settlements are politically expedient, then the government can fast track them and that is what Ir Amin says has been going on at an unprecedented rate since the war broke out on October 7.”



Protests in Morocco call for end to normalisation with Israel: Report

Thousands of Moroccans have taken to the streets of their capital to call for an end to their country’s ties with Israel, in response to what they called the Israeli “genocide” in Gaza. “Normalisation is treason,” and “Stop the massacre”, read banners protesters carried in front of Morocco’s parliament in the centre of Rabat, according to the AFP news agency.

In late 2020, Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel by signing the US-brokered Abraham Accords. As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington’s recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Pro-Palestinian protestors stage demonstration at Museum of Modern Art in New York

Hundreds of pro-Palestinian protestors have staged a demonstration at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, demanding the institution cut ties with donors linked to Israel. A video posted on social media showed protestors draping banners from the museum’s upper floors and chanting, “Free, free Palestine”.

MoMA closed its galleries to the public at around 3:45pm on Saturday, after protestors took over the building’s second-floor atrium during the demonstration, which coincided with a protest at the city’s Brooklyn Museum, online arts magazine Hyperallergic reported.