Violence against Palestinians continues, Israel moves towards annexation
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – On Sunday, mobs of Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian shops, homes and cars in the village of Huwara, in the West Bank.
The attack occurred hours after Israeli and Palestinian officials met in the Jordanian port city of Aqaba to call for an end to violence. According to the Palestinian Red Cross, 98 people were injured during the assault on Huwara. Palestinian Ministry of Health speaks of around 300 injured and one Palestinian man, Samih al-Aqtash, killed by the riot. According to observers, the attackers were protected by Israel’s security forces.
Two settlers had been killed in Huwara prior the riot in response to a deadly raid by Israel’s security forces in the nearby Palestinian city of Nablus, which killed 11 people.
The new Israeli government, which assumed office in Dec. 2022, has ramped up raids on Palestinian cities, such as Nablus and Jenin, and officially recognized illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The new cabinet – described by observers as the most right-wing in Israel’s history – also moved to fully annex the West Bank last week.
On Feb. 23, Israel’s government transferred governing authority over the West Bank, which has been occupied since 1967, from Israel’s armed forces to a civilian office administrating settlements, connected to the Ministry of Defense.
According to an Israeli legal expert, “Transferring powers to Israeli civilian hands is an act of de jure annexation because it entails removing power from the occupying military and placing it directly in the hands of the government — this is an expression of sovereignty. The bottom line is that the agreement signed today is simultaneously a giant leap of legal annexation of the West Bank and an act of perpetuating the regime’s apartheid nature.”
The response to this move and the increasing violence by Israeli forces against Palestinians has been met with a meek response by the Palestinian Authority (PA), which has held control over the West Bank since the 1990s. The PA is seen as corrupt and unwilling to challenge the status quo by many Palestinians. Increasingly, the youth of the West Bank look towards more radical, armed groups to defend themselves against the onslaught of violence and occupation.
Groups like ‘Lions’ Den’, a Nablus-based armed militia crossing traditional intra-Palestinian party divisions, have become popular. Israel’s crackdown have not hampered, but rather helped the growth in popularity of such groups. After the killing of the 11 Palestinians in Nablus last week, ‘Lions’ Den’ announced that 50 new fighters had joined its ranks.