Israel Braces Itself For a New Genocide on The West Bank

The Israeli Defence Minister has ordered the army to take control of three Palestinian refugee camps in the northern West Bank and block residents’ return. Euro-Med Monitor strongly condemns the move, which reveals a serious escalation of Israel’s apartheid and forced displacement practices against the Palestinian people, beginning with the 1948 Nakba.

The Israeli Defence Minister has publicly confirmed the expulsion of approximately 40,000 Palestinian refugees from the Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps in the northern West Bank, citing the need for combat in order to dismantle “terrorist infrastructure” in these areas. What is actually occurring on the ground, however, is the mass displacement of Palestinians from their places of refuge, along with the destruction of their homes, livelihoods, and civilian infrastructure, including water, electricity, and roads. Israel clearly aims to create a new reality that will prevent their short- and long-term return.

The Israeli army’s actions amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, as they are conducting military operations in ways that flagrantly violate international law, which mandates the protection of civilians and civilian objects and prohibits their targeting or subjection to indiscriminate or excessive attacks. Such repeated and large-scale violations demonstrate Israel’s blatant disregard for its international legal obligations and pose a serious threat to the civilian population in the West Bank. Immediate international intervention is needed to ensure those responsible for these crimes are held accountable as swiftly as possible.

    The Israeli army’s deployment of tanks, its establishment of military sites within refugee camps, and its prevention of residents’ right to return reflect a deliberate effort to impose a military fait accompli   

Israel’s Ethnic Cleansing

Moreover, the Israeli army’s deployment of tanks, its establishment of military sites within these refugee camps, and its prevention of residents’ right to return reflect a deliberate effort to impose a military fait accompli. These actions violate international law and effectively undermine the agreements under which the Palestinian National Authority was formed.

Euro-Med Monitor’s field team observed the movement of approximately three Israeli tanks late on Saturday evening. The tanks were travelling from Muqeible, near Israel’s Jalamah military checkpoint in Jenin, and positioning themselves near Jenin’s refugee camp, marking the first occurrence of its kind since 2002.

Israel’s deployment of tanks in densely populated residential areas within a purely civilian environment occurred 33 days after its army launched the large-scale “Operation Iron Wall” in Jenin and the Jenin refugee camp, which it later expanded to include Tulkarm and Tubas, leading to full Israeli control over the northern West Bank camps and the destruction of hundreds of homes. This indicates that the deployment of these heavy vehicles serves no security or military purpose, but is instead part of an Israeli attempt to establish military control over the region.

The Israeli army is systematically destroying the aforementioned areas despite there being no military necessity to do so, using bulldozers to pave new roads over the ruins of destroyed homes. Additionally, the army has been instructed to establish military sites within the camps in an apparent aim to alter the geographical reality of these areas and diminish the symbolic significance of the camps, which represent the Palestinian refugee cause following the displacement of Palestinians from their cities and villages in 1948. The presence of the Israeli army in these camps has destroyed any means of livelihood, leaving thousands of residents displaced, living either in temporary shelters or with relatives.

Euro-Med Monitor warns that Israel may attempt to impose a new fait accompli in all areas under Palestinian National Authority sovereignty, effectively breaking the agreements signed with it and nullifying its role in these areas. This could be a step towards annexing the West Bank and imposing Israeli sovereignty by force, which would be in line with the directives of right-wing Israeli ministers who have declared 2025 to be the year for sovereignty over the region.

Official Israeli statements suggest that the military assault will not be confined to the refugee camps in the northern West Bank, but will spread to other areas in both the northern and southern West Bank, putting hundreds of thousands of civilians at risk of death, injury, arrest, displacement, or loss of property.

Israel’s impunity over the past decades was made possible due to international inaction—or complicity—in the face of its crimes of aggression, apartheid, forced displacement, and land seizure over 77 years, as well as the global silence regarding the 15-month genocide in Gaza, has emboldened Israel to intensify and expand its aggression against the Palestinians and the territory it occupies. The ongoing lack of any deterrence or legal consequences increases the likelihood of more crimes being committed by Israel, which poses a serious threat not only to the rights of the Palestinian people but to the stability of the entire international system.

The recent advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on Israeli policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory affirms the illegality of Israel’s presence in these areas. The Court confirmed that Israel must end its illegal presence as soon as possible, compensate those affected for their damages, and fulfill its other obligations toward the Palestinian people. The international community must exert effective pressure on Israel to adhere to international law, cease its military operations in the northern West Bank, withdraw from illegally occupied areas, allow residents to return, and halt its decades-long policy of destruction and displacement.

Euro-Med Monitor urges the international community to guarantee the rights of the Palestinian people to live in freedom and dignity; support their right to self-determination under international law; work to end the illegal Israeli occupation and settler colonialism in the Occupied Palestinian Territory; dismantle the system of apartheid and isolation imposed on Palestinians; lift the unlawful blockade on the Gaza Strip; ensure accountability for Israeli perpetrators; and guarantee the right of Palestinian victims to redress and justice.

EuroMed Human Rights Monitor

Continue reading
More Israelis Than Israelis

ouse Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Brian Mast ordered committee staff to refer to the Israeli-occupied West Bank as “Judea and Samaria,” according to a copy of an internal committee memo obtained by Axios.

Mast wrote that “in recognition of our unbreakable bond with Israel, the House Foreign Affairs committee will, from here forward, refer to the West Bank as Judea and Samaria in formal correspondence, communication and documentation.”

Continue reading
Microsoft Fires Employees For Israeli Complicity

Tech giant Microsoft removed five employees from a live meeting after they had protested the company’s complicit in the Israeli crimes and its contract with the Israeli army, AP reported.

They protested for providing artificial intelligence and cloud computing services to the Israeli army, which it used to target civilians in war-torn Gaza.

It came after an investigation by AP found that an AI models from Microsoft and Open AI had been used in Israel’s military actions in Gaza.

Continue reading
Israeli Jailers Poured Acid on Me Says Released Prisoner Abu Tawila

Mohammed Abu Tawila is one of many Palestinians who went through extreme conditions in Israeli jails. Recently released, Abu Tawila says Israeli jailers poured acid and other chemicals on his body during an interrogation.

Abu Tawila was kidnapped from Gaza and subjected to severe beatings, including punching him in the eye.

He was tortured with chemical substances, including chlorine, dishwashing liquid, laundry detergent, soap, and air fresheners.

“They were ignited on my body for three days.”

“My eye was included [in the torture]. One of them would keep punching me in the eye, while wearing gloves with something tough, that resembled bone,” he recounts.

Abu Tawila would later collapse on the rubble due to the severe beating.

Once the Israeli soldiers saw how his body had reacted to the acid attack and other chemicals, they transferred him to the occupied West Bank.

Abu Tawila remained in the hospital for a few weeks before his transfer to the notorious Ofer military prison.

“Of course, there was also torture in the occupied territories, from beatings, to insults and humiliation, not to mention hunger and sitting in the cold.”

“They [Israeli guards] would release dogs on us, storm in and beat us inside, tie our hands, and take us outside to the prison yards.”

“They would also kick us, causing our faces to swell and bleed,” Abu Tawila recounts.

In a recent post on X, Israel’s far-right politician Itamar Ben Gvir shared a video showing the abuse and humiliation of Palestinians in the Keziot prison, located in the Negev desert.

In the clip, a detainee can be seen kneeling and painting the prison walls, while an Israeli guard stands over him, pointing a weapon in his direction.

Several other prisoners are shown kneeling and facing the opposite wall.

Testimonies also describe regular beatings by guards, extreme overcrowding, humiliation and inadequate hygiene.

In early August 2024, the Israeli rights group B’Tselem accused Israeli authorities of systematically abusing Palestinians in “torture camps,” subjecting them to severe violence and sexual assault.

Human rights organizations say Israel continues to violate all rights and freedoms granted to prisoners by the Fourth Geneva Convention and international laws.

Palestinians subjected to ‘severe torture’ under Israeli detention: Euro-Med

Euro-Med says the terrible health conditions in which Palestinians were released from Israeli prisons indicate a pattern of torture and abuse until the very last moments.

Dozens of Palestinians killed in Israeli detention

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said at least 59 Palestinians held by Israel have lost their lives since October 2023.

The PPS said 38 people of the group are from the Gaza Strip.

The PPS accused the Israeli authorities of hiding the death of scores of Palestinian prisoners in detention.

Separately, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs confirmed that Musab Hani Haniyeh was the latest victim who died in Israeli custody according to PressTV.

Haniyeh, 35, from the southern city of Khan Yunis, was abducted on March 3, 2024. His family said Haniyeh was in good health before his detention.

More than 14,500 Palestinians have been kidnapped by Israeli forces across the occupied West Bank since October 2023. Dozens of them have died in detention in recent months.

Continue reading