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SvennoJ 2 days ago
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Rights experts ‘dismayed’ by deadly Israeli violence in West Bank’s Jenin

Israel’s intensified military assault in the occupied West Bank marks a dangerous escalation against Palestinians, independent human rights experts warn.

A group of UN special rapporteurs and independent experts urged the international community in a statement to take principled action to protect the human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people.

“We are dismayed by the escalation of deadly violence sweeping through Jenin and the rest of the occupied West Bank,” they said. “Israel’s repression seems to have no end in sight.”

“The new attacks come in the wake of a US decision to lift limited sanctions on Israeli settlers, and by Israeli authorities to remove administrative detention and other sanctions for Israeli settler violence, effectively offering a greenlight for more unchecked violence against the Palestinian people.”



Israeli forces cause blackout after attacking Tulkarem infrastructure

Israeli forces targeted an electricity transformer in the western neighbourhood of Tulkarem city, causing a widespread power outage in various parts of the city and its refugee camp.

Wafa news agency reported that Israeli snipers, positioned in a building in the western neighbourhood, unleashed heavy fire and struck the transformer, resulting in a power outage.

Israeli forces have continued their onslaught on Tulkarem city and its camp since early afternoon, reportedly turning several residents’ homes into military outposts and sniper positions and firing live ammunition at any moving object.

Footage circulated online by local Palestinian outlets showed the moment an Israeli bulldozer uprooted trees and destroyed infrastructure in Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank. Other videos showed a fire breaking out in a house in the camp.


Israel forces dozens of families to evacuate homes in Tulkarem

Forced evacuations took place during the huge ongoing raid in the northern occupied West Bank city, according to the Wafa news agency.

The Israeli army seized several buildings overlooking the Shuhada and al-Hamam neighbourhoods and turned them into military barracks after forcing residents out, according to Wafa.

The military used bulldozers to destroy some other buildings in the city, it added.

Israeli forces blow up house in Jenin, raid several West Bank cities

Israeli forces have carried out military operations in several locations across the occupied West Bank over recent hours, according to local media reports.

Incidents include:

  • A Palestinian-owned house has been demolished during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp.
  • The cities of Tulkarem, Nablus, Hebron, Bethlehem and Dura have been stormed and several Palestinians arrested.
  • Israeli forces have also stormed the towns of Qarawat Bani Zeid and Kafr Ein, north of Ramallah; Fahma, southwest of Jenin; Odla, south of Nablus; Anabta and Kafr al-Labad, east of Tulkarem; and Surif and Adh Dhahiriya, near Hebron.

 

Israel holds ‘all-time high’ number of Palestinian children in ‘administrative detention’: Rights group

Child rights group Defense for Children International said that Israeli forces have imprisoned more Palestinian children than ever before under Israel’s controversial “administrative detention” laws, as of the end of December 2024.

The arrest and imprisonment of 112 Palestinian children “without charge or trial” comes amid escalating Israeli military operations in the occupied West Banks since October 2023, and the number is the highest since Defense for Children began monitoring “child administrative detainees” in 2008.

Israeli forces were holding 300 Palestinian children in prisons by the end of last year, including 112 in administrative detention, Defense for Children said.

“Palestinian children held under administrative detention orders are not presented with charges, and their detention is based on secret evidence that is neither disclosed to the child nor their attorney,” the organisation said.

“Israel has the dubious distinction of being the only country in the world that systematically prosecutes between 500 and 700 children in military courts each year that lack fundamental fair trial rights,” it added.