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Israel Steps Up Vicious Attacks, Calls for Annexing Palestinian West Bank

Israel’s campaign of repression and murder against Palestinians in the West Bank continues to escalate.  Under the banner of “counterterrorism,” Israel is carrying out a violent campaign of terror, forced displacement, and ethnic cleansing. 

The Palestinian West Bank is the area west of the Jordan River, where three million Palestinian people live.  It was illegally seized by Israel in 1967, and ever since Palestinians there have been under attack by Israel.1 

The rubble of homes destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya camp in the West Bank, February 19, 2025.

 

The rubble of homes destroyed by the Israeli army's air and ground offensive in Jabaliya camp in the West Bank, February 19, 2025.    Photo: AP

Israeli military and settler assaults on Palestinians are increasing and key Israeli officials are openly planning “to encourage the flight of Palestinians from the West Bank, destroy the Palestinian Authority and annex the territory”—in other words, to steal all the land and integrate it into Israel, regardless of the criminality involved or the staggering human cost to the Palestinians.2

Trump’s return to power, his full backing for Israel, and now his open push to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza has given further backing to Israeli aggression and helped take it to a whole new level.     

Just this past week:

  • Israel’s massive military operation, which began on January 21, the day after Trump took office, is continuing. Over 45,000 Palestinians have been driven from their homes since then, the most in the 57-plus years since Israel seized the West Bank.  Thousands have been forced to shelter with family, friends or in halls, schools, mosques, municipal buildings or wherever they can.
  • This past weekend, Israel’s Defense Minister announced that those displaced will not be allowed to return home.  He also stated that Israeli military would remain in the West Bank for the next year and that tanks were being deployed there for the first time in 20 years.3
  • The water and sewer systems in the four refugee camps targeted have been destroyed and the camps have been made uninhabitable. “The soldiers are taking over one area after another, destroying homes, infrastructure and roads,” one resident said.  “We had to leave the camp—the army threatened to shoot at us,” said another.
  • Palestinians, including youth and children, are being shot and killed in Israeli raids. Israel is attacking schools.
  • Netanyahu has ordered a stepped-up military operation and the deployment of three more battalions to the West Bank, following an explosion that damaged three parked buses near Tel Aviv (which is some 45 miles from the West Bank) but caused no casualties.4
  • Israel announced plans to illegally build some 1,000 new homes for settlers near Jerusalem, which is yet another step toward annexing the West Bank.
Palestinian residents of the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, forced to flee Israeli military operations, February 11, 2025.

 

Palestinian residents of the West Bank refugee camp of Nur Shams, near Tulkarem, forced to flee Israeli military operations, February 11, 2025.    Photo: AP

An “Unprecedented” Moment

A Palestinian American historian at the University of Arizona spoke to the New York Times about the current situation in the West Bank: “What makes this moment unprecedented is not only the scale of the displacement but also the accompanying discourse, which increasingly normalizes the idea of permanent forced displacement.” 

“The forced deportation or transfer of a civilian population is a violation of international humanitarian law, a war crime and a crime against humanity,” the New York Times reports. 

See also:

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FOOTNOTES:

1. The West Bank is Palestinian land by international agreement.  In 1967, Israel seized it from Jordan, expelling villagers and forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee into Jordan. Since then, Israel has steadily consolidated its control, including by building illegal homes settlements for some 500,000 Israelis, destroying or seizing Palestinian homes, lands, and farms, and creating an apartheid legal system that systematically robs Palestinian people of their basic rights. See also, Israel Targets Jenin, Escalates Violent Ethnic Cleansing Across the West Bank, revcom.us, January 27, 2025. [back]

2. Palestinian Displacement in the West Bank Is Highest Since 1967, Experts Say, New York Times, February 17, 2025 [back]

3. Israel Says 40,000 Palestinians 'Evacuated' West Bank Refugee Camps, Vows to Stay for a Year, Haaretz, February 23, 2025 [back]

4. Netanyahu to Escalate West Bank Attacks After Buses Explode in Tel Aviv, Democracy Now, February 21, 2025 [back]

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