Situation across West Bank, not only Jenin, ‘really catastrophic’
New Israeli raids and movement restrictions in the occupied West Bank are making life agonising in the territory, according to Palestinian activist Hamza Zubiedat.
“The situation in the West Bank nowadays is really catastrophic … It’s not only in Jenin,” where a three-day raid is continuing, Zubiedat told Al Jazeera from Bethlehem.
Due to checkpoint closures and delays, moving from one West Bank city to another can be a daylong affair, making it nearly impossible for people to get to work or transport goods, he said.
To get from Bethlehem to Ramallah, for example, “usually takes 45 [minutes] to one-hour maximum”, he explained, “but nowadays it takes one full day … sometimes you have to sleep in the car waiting [for] the checkpoint to open”.
The checkpoints are staffed by “three or four soldiers, young soldiers who are doing this on purpose, so this is a political order by the Israeli government”, he added.
“By isolating and cutting the Palestinian villages and cities from each other, that means no more doctors, no more nurses, no more teachers, no more even transporting the goods and fruits and vegetables from a place to another, so that means more poverty, more suffering for the Palestinian people,” said Zubiedat.
Commuters wait in their vehicles at the Israeli Atara checkpoint on Route 465 near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on January 22
Trump policies give Israeli settlers ‘green light’ for West Bank violence
Palestinian activist Hamza Zubiedat believes Israel’s government is gearing up to try to annex more of the occupied West Bank. “Since the election of the Netanyahu government, Israel has started to clearly say that the West Bank is their goal, they want to annex,” Zubiedat told Al Jazeera.
The election of US President Donald Trump, who in his first term proposed a plan that would allow Israel to annex the vast majority of its illegal West Bank settlements, gives Israel even more momentum, said Zubiedat.
“Now, we are in [Trump’s] second term … and on his first day, he signed an order to end the sanctions on a group of fanatical settlers who were sentenced [for] violating and making terrorist actions against the Palestinian people,” he said. “This is a green light for the settlers to do more.”
People inspect the rubble of a house where two Palestinian fighters were killed during an Israeli raid in Burqin town in Jenin governorate in the occupied West Bank, on January 23
Israeli army forcing Palestinians in Jenin camp to leave homes: Residents
Dozens of residents have confirmed to Al Jazeera that Israeli troops are forcing Palestinians in the Jenin refugee camp to leave their homes, coinciding with their siege of the area.
One of the residents, Nishanah Istiti, said the soldiers are searching women and the elderly and obstructing their movement, adding that the affected people did not know where to go.
The troops have determined one path for the residents to leave the camp, Istiti said.
Yesterday, Jenin Mayor Muhammad Jarar said the Israeli army forced a number of Palestinians to leave their homes in the Jenin camp to the Wadi Burqin area on the western outskirts of the city, according to the Wafa news agency. He said in a phone interview with Wafa that the mass displacement order made via loudspeakers affected the residents of areas including the neighbourhoods in Mahyoub Street and Jabal Abu Dhahir.
Israel’s Jenin operation began on Tuesday and is the third major incursion by the Israeli army in less than two years in the occupied West Bank city. Jenin has been a longtime stronghold of resistance to Israel’s decades-old military occupation of Palestinian territory.
Israeli forces set fire to homes in besieged Jenin
Israeli troops raiding Jenin in the occupied West Bank have set homes in the area ablaze, the Wafa news agency reports. The arson attacks include several houses in the Jenin refugee camp and one near al-Asir Mosque.
The attacks come on the third day of Israel’s raid into Jenin and surrounding areas, which has killed 12 people and injured dozens.
