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settler violence
'There Is No Safety for Us': West Bank Kids Under Growing Assault by Israeli Forces
"These children deserve better," said one mother. "They deserve to be children, not to live in constant fear of raids and shootings."
Sep 17, 2024
An average of five children per day have been killed or wounded by Israeli occupation forces and settler-colonists in the West Bank of Palestine, according to a report published Tuesday by Save the Children, which sounded the alarm on what it called a "significant escalation of violence in the past six weeks."
According to the charity, Israeli forces have killed 158 Palestinian children in the West Bank between October 7 and August 14. At least 1,400 other children have been injured. The majority of those killed—115 children—were shot, while others have been killed by Israeli aerial bombing and drone strikes.
"We must not allow violence against children to become normalized or accepted as inevitable."
Child casualties have increased significantly since Israel launched a major offensive in the northern West Bank on August 28.
One 12-year-old girl from the Tulkarem refugee camp described what it was like to experience an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) raid.
"I felt a lot of fear because of the airstrikes and shootings," she said. "By the third day, I was even more scared because the Israeli forces raided our home. They barged in, screaming, and my mum tried to speak to them, but they swarmed the house and searched every room. We were so afraid of them."
"There is no safety for us," she added. "At any moment they might come back and at any moment they go—we don't know."
The girl's mother told Save the Children that IDF troops "gathered at night, began the raid, and stayed a long time here and raided our home, terrorizing the kids, separating them, frightening them."
"They blew up the door," she continued. "My little girl couldn't control herself and wet herself. [She] was standing, shaking in the corner. They pointed their guns at me."
"The children are constantly afraid, deprived of the simplest things," she added. "Their mental health is deteriorating. These children deserve better. They deserve to be children, not to live in constant fear of raids and shootings."
Save the Children said that "since last October there has been an increase in the arbitrary arrest, detention, and abuse of children in the Israeli military detention system, more forced displacement of families, demolition of homes, and a sharp rise in violent attacks by Israeli settlers."
Jeremy Stoner, the charity's Middle East regional director, stressed that "these actions are not isolated incidents; they are part of a trend of increasing Israeli military operations and use of force that are systematically eroding the safety, security, and fundamental rights of Palestinian children, who are paying the highest price in this escalating violence."
"Every day, children are killed, injured, or left severely distressed, and their families are left grieving unimaginable losses," he continued. "This environment deprives children of essential services and even the basic security of their homes, ripping away their sense of safety when they need it most."
"We must not allow violence against children to become normalized or accepted as inevitable," Stoner added. "We need urgent and decisive action to protect children across the West Bank and to stop this becoming their increasing reality."
Israel's offensive began just weeks after the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—where Israel is also on trial for genocide in Gaza—declared the country's 57-year occupation of the West Bank an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately. Instead, Israel launched the largest campaign in the territory in decades.
According to the most recent United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs situation report, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed 546 Palestinians and injured at least 5,669 others in the West Bank since October 7. Since January 2023, 772 West Bank Palestinians have been killed and more than 14,600 were wounded. Over that same period, Palestinians have killed 41 Israelis including eight children and wounded 278 others.
Meanwhile in Gaza, Israeli forces have killed or wounded more than 146,000 Palestinians since October 7, when the IDF began a "complete siege" and relentless bombardment, followed by a ground invasion, that displaced almost all of the embattled enclave's 2.3 million people while starving and sickening many others.
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Top EU Diplomat Warns Israeli Impunity Will Lead to West Bank Becoming 'a New Gaza'
"Against this backdrop, it is clear that the prospect of a two-state solution—which we have been ritually repeating—is receding ever further while the international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act."
Sep 10, 2024
European Union foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell on Tuesday urged the international community to stop "radical members of the Israeli government" from thwarting Palestinian statehood and prevent Israel from turning the illegally occupied West Bank into "a new Gaza."
Speaking to attendees of an Arab League conference in Cairo, Borrell lamented that a Gaza cease-fire agreement "has still not been signed and does not seem likely to be signed in the near future."
"Why? Quite simply, because those who are waging the war have no interest in putting an end to it," he continued. "So, they are just pretending... Because, as it turns out, their intransigence is accompanied by total impunity."
"If acts have no consequences, if blatant violation of international law remains disregarded, if institutions such as the International Criminal Court are threatened, if the International Court of Justice rulings are totally ignored by those who promote a rules-based order, who can be trusted?" Borrell asked.
"Not only is there no pause in the war in Gaza," he noted. "But what looms on the horizon is the extension of the conflict to the West Bank, where radical members of the Israeli government—Netanyahu's government—try to make it impossible to create a future Palestinian state."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his far-right government have openly
boasted about their efforts to derail the so-called "two-state solution," and Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in July to oppose the creation of a Palestinian state.
Borrell asserted that "a new front is being opened with a clear objective: to turn the West Bank into a new Gaza—in rising violence, delegitimizing the Palestinian Authority, stimulating provocations to react forcefully, and not shying away from saying to the face of the world that the only way to reach a peaceful settlement is to annex the West Bank and Gaza."
Since last October, Israeli soldiers and settler-colonists have killed more than 600 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, including more than 140 children. Settlers have carried out more than 1,000 attacks including multiple deadly pogroms, during which Israel Defense Forces soldiers stood by, protected, and even joined the attackers.
"Without action, the West Bank will become a new Gaza," Borrell stressed. "And Gaza will become a new West Bank, as settlers' movements are preparing new settlements."
"Against this backdrop, it is clear that the prospect of a two-state solution—which we have been ritually repeating—is receding ever further while the international community deplores, feels, and condemns, but finds it hard to act," Borrell added.
"What can we do?" he asked, continuing:
We need to raise our voice at the next [United Nations General Assembly] and prevent a sort of "Gaza fatigue," which will embolden the extremists and postpone once again the idea of a political settlement. We have to launch a process where all parties who want to work on an agenda—a concrete and practical agenda to implement the two-state solution—can work together.
Second, we need to revitalize the Palestinian Authority to support their reform process, but also to support [them] financially.
Third, [we have] to facilitate all attempts at dialogue between Palestinians and Israelis.
Fourth, [we must] not give up on engaging with Israeli civil society, even in this context—and especially in this context. Everyone, not just the Europeans—Palestinians, and Arab civil society, must do it. I know how difficult it is to reconcile both narratives, but it is the only way to move forward...
Fifth, the Palestinians have to reach a common vision, to overcome their divisions, because the more these divisions exist, the more they undermine the legitimacy and representativeness of the Palestinians.
Sixth, the Europeans need to adopt a common approach. That is what I am working tirelessly on, even if the success is limited, because I have never seen such a dividing issue among the Europeans as the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Seventh, the Arab States need also to adopt a truly common approach [to] coordinating and showing solidarity.
"All in all, it means building a balance of power on realistic foundations for the two-state solution—before it becomes, definitely, too late," Borrell concluded. "I know, it is extremely difficult. However, we must never give up."
Last month, Borrell called for sanctioning Israeli leaders for hate speech and inciting war crimes in Gaza and the illegally occupied West Bank. He has also called for an arms embargo on Israel.
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice. Meanwhile, International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking to arrest Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders—at least one of whom has been assassinated—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Since October 7, when the Hamas-led attack on Israel left more than 1,100 people dead—some of them killed by so-called "
friendly fire"—and over 240 others kidnapped, Israeli forces have killed at least 40,988 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children. At least 94,825 other Palestinians have been wounded. Almost all of Gaza's 2.3 million people have been forcibly displaced, while Israel's "complete siege" has starved and sickened people across the enclave, with dozens dying of malnutrition.
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'Calculated Brutality': Israelis Killing a Palestinian Child Every 2 Days in Occupied West Bank
"The international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children's lives," said one campaigner.
Sep 09, 2024
Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 140 Palestinian children in the illegally occupied West Bank since last October—a rate of one child every two days—according to an analysis released Monday.
The report, published by Defense of Children International-Palestine (DCIP), details how Israeli occupation forces "routinely targeted Palestinian children with live ammunition and aerial attacks, prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching wounded children, and confiscated children's bodies in violation of international law" in the 10 months after the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas-led militants.
"Israeli forces are killing Palestinian children with calculated brutality and cruelty all throughout the occupied Palestinian territory," DCIP general director Khaled Quzmar said in a statement. "The international community must act urgently to enact an arms embargo and sanctions to protect Palestinian children's lives."
DCIP field researchers conducted interviews and collected evidence documenting 141 children killed by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) troops and settlers in the West Bank between October 7, 2023 and July 31, 2024. As Common Dreams recently reported, that's around a 250% increase from the nine months preceding the October 7 attack.
Among the report's key findings:
- 20 percent of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 have been killed after October 7, 2023—a rate of one child every two days;
- Israeli forces deliberately target and shoot unarmed children with live ammunition and trained snipers;
- Israeli forces and authorities systematically deny Palestinian children their right to medical care by preventing ambulances, paramedics, or bystanders from aiding them;
- Israeli authorities and forces systematically, deliberately, and specifically embolden Israeli settler violence towards Palestinian children;
- Israeli forces present during armed Israeli settler attacks fail to prevent the aggression, fail to help the Palestinian victims, and often collaborate with the settlers in inflicting lethal harm;
- The fatal shootings of child protesters in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza and the use of expanding bullets during the crackdowns constitute war crimes prosecutable at the International Criminal Court;
- Israeli authorities' practice of confiscating and withholding Palestinian bodies is a violation of international humanitarian law and international criminal law; and
- Israeli authorities work to ensure Israeli forces continue enjoying impunity and face no consequence for the extrajudicial killing of Palestinian children.
According to DCIP, there are "no known accounts of accountability" during the period covered by the report.
"When an Israeli soldier targets a Palestinian child, or an Israeli military official orders the targeting of a child, they are in violation of international human rights, humanitarian, and criminal law," DCIP accountability program director Ayed Abu Eqtaish said Monday. "Not a single person has been held accountable for the killing of these children, emboldening Israeli forces to continue killing with impunity."
The new report comes amid the biggest and deadliest Israeli escalation in the West Bank in decades and as Israel's far-right government pushes forward with plans to build new settler colonies and expand existing ones by stealing more West Bank lands from Palestinians.
On Monday, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk pointed to the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) recent opinion that the Israeli occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately as he implored the world to reject Israel's "blatant disregard for international law."
Israel is currently on trial for genocide at the ICJ for its conduct in the war on Gaza. According to the Gaza Health Ministry and U.N. agencies, Israel's 339-day assault on Gaza has left at least 145,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing while forcibly displacing, starving, and sickening millions more. More than 17,000 Palestinian children are believed to have been killed in Gaza.
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