This Week In Occupied Palestine (23/12/2022)

Israel's new coalition agreement announced as the death toll rises in occupied Palestine, adding to the deadliest year in the West Bank for Palestinians since the UN began keeping count in 2005.

This week in occupied Palestine the death toll in the West Bank climbed to 171, with 302 acts of resistance being recorded in the past week, 62 of which were violent in nature. After the death of political-prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid, a new armed formation also announced itself in Ramallah, as Israel’s new coalition pledges to annex the West Bank and impose the death penalty on Palestinians.

Funeral of Ahmad Daraghmeh, in Nablus. Credit: WAFA News.

The announcement by the Israeli Likud Party’s Benjamin Netanyahu, that he has reached an agreement to form the most hardline right-wing Israeli coalition in history has sent shockwaves throughout the world. The Religious Zionism Party, led by Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, is considered even by pro-Israel Lobby groups in the West, those traditionally supportive of Netanyahu, to be beyond the pale and its policies are most definitely heading towards a confrontation with the Palestinians. However, this coalition has not even entered the fold yet, as the West Bank has suffered its most violent year since 2005, with the so called all-inclusive Israeli coalition having delivered only death and destruction to the Palestinian people.

This week in Palestine…

On Saturday, 2 Palestinians were killed by what eyewitnesses said was a settler terrorist attack near the Za’tara checkpoint, in south Nablus. Mohammad and Muhannad Yousef Muteir, both brothers, were reportedly fixing tires on their car when a 50-year-old illegal settler rammed their car into them. The settler was treated for light injuries in hospital and the Israeli police claim the incident was “accidental”, contradicted by eyewitnesses who said that the car “deliberately” sped up and rammed directly into the 2 men. The US joined a call to launch a probe into the incident, Israel has so far protected the settler from investigation, maintaining that he is innocent without a thorough investigation.

Later that day, the Areen al-Asoud (Lions Den) armed group in Nablus issued two statements; claiming responsibility for a shooting attack against Israeli settlers and urging Palestinians from the 1948 territories (Palestinian citizens of Israel) and Jerusalemites to flock to al-Aqsa Mosque to confront settler incursions into the site. The Jenin Brigades also carried out shooting attacks against Israeli forces that day. No casualties were reported.

On Sunday, Salah Hamouri, a Palestinian-French lawyer who works for Addameer - a Palestinian legal aid and prisoners rights group - was deported by Israel to France, in a move which was condemned by Paris as illegal. Born, raised, and a life-long resident of East Jerusalem, holding a Jerusalem ID card which was revoked by Israel's interior minister Ayelet Shaked, Salah Hamouri was the victim of an Israeli ethnic cleansing policy. The ID card system, under which around 350,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem are part of, deprives them of any citizenship and allows for the Israeli authorities to simply revoke and expel Palestinians if they pose a “security” risk or have left the country for too long. The accusations mounted against lawyer Salah Hamouri are completely unsubstantiated and the decision to deport him is a clear violation of international law. Israel has no legal right to operate in East Jerusalem at all, under international law the territory is occupied as of 1967, whilst the UN flatly rejected the Israeli annexation of the territory in 1980.

Later that day Israeli occupation forces raided Jenin and arrested Ahmad Abu Tabikh, whilst being confronted by resistance fighters who opened fire against the invading forces. The Jenin brigades later released videos that night, which showed an armed ambush on Israeli military jeeps that stormed Jenin, a shooting attack was also carried out against a settler bus. The bus appeared to have had bullet proof glass, so the bullets were not able to penetrate the bus to kill or injure any of the settlers passing near a settlement located in the northern West Bank.

Israel also announced its intention to bulldoze the home of Mohammed al-Jabari, who killed an illegal Israeli settler in the Kiryat Arba settlement, in al-Khalil (Hebron), in February. Al-Jabari was shot dead. The policy of collective punishment for armed attacks, to destroy the attackers family home is regularly implemented. In addition to this, Israeli settlers began to storm the Al-Aqsa Mosque site in Jerusalem, provoking outrage amongst Palestinians who seek to protect the site from the stated aim of the ‘Temple Mount’ movement, which is to takeover and destroy the site for the building of the Jewish Third Temple.

On Monday, Palestinian political prisoner Nasser Abu Hamid entered a coma and was finally moved to Assaf Harofeh hospital after being kept in Ramle jail’s medical clinic. Abu Hamid was diagnosed with cancer in August of 2021, after Israeli military prison authorities had ignored his complaints of intense chest pain for months. Part of the cancer was removed in August, but the disease was already late-stage and according to prisoners rights groups the Israeli authorities intentionally neglected the prisoners health concerns after the initial surgery also. Israel maintains that it did nothing wrong, knowing that according to the law they are obliged to take care of the health of prisoners under their detention.

Nasser Abu Hamid was serving 7 life sentences, plus an additional 50 years, for his involvement in co-founding the Al-Aqsa Martyrs brigades, along with helping mastermind and carry out 12 attacks against Israelis. Israel’s military court system has a 99.7% conviction rate, making it a kangaroo court, if they so choose to they can imprison Palestinian minors for up to 20 years for throwing stones and keep them in prison indefinitely under “administrative detention” (AKA held without a charge). A mass march took place in Ramallah, Monday night, to support the suffering prisoner.

Israeli occupation authorities also bulldozed a house belonging to Yasser Abu Zaytoun, near Jericho, on Monday. Israeli police in Jerusalem were additionally filmed harassing reconstruction workers at Al-Aqsa’s al-Qibli mosque, as they were working to install new glass windows after they were damaged by Israeli fire earlier this year. Israeli ‘Temple Mount’ settler groups also decided to invade the grounds of Al-Aqsa Mosque compound again on the same day.

Al-Mezan Center for Human Rights issued a statement on the Israeli prevention of a resident of Gaza, who was suffering from cancer, to reach appointments. “The occupation bears responsibility for the death of the Palestinian Mahmoud Al-Kurd in Gaza, after preventing him from reaching 5 appointments for his cancer treatment at Al-Mutalaa Hospital in Jerusalem”, Al-Mezan Center said.

It was announced that too, that Tamer Azmi Nashrati, a 23-year-old fighter in the Jenin Battalion, from the Jenin refugee camp, died of wounds he sustained a few days earlier in a confrontation with invading Israeli forces. At night, handmade light explosives - slightly more dangerous than fireworks - were thrown at the Qalandia checkpoint, causing the occupation forces stationed there to temporarily shut the site down and retreat out of fear of possible gunfire.

On Tuesday, Nasser Abu Hamid was declared a martyr. After suffering, in and out of comas, for months and being deprived of seeing his mother for 2 years, Abu Hamid passed away. After intervention from the Red Cross, Abu Hamid’s mother was allowed a brief visit to see her son for the last time on Monday, she attended a memorial for Abu Hamid in central Ramallah on Tuesday. Israeli forces are currently holding the Palestinian resistance icon’s body, along with the bodies of 10 other prisoners who died in their detention. Around 600 Palestinian political prisoners are being held whilst sick, 24 of which are suffering from cancer. Israel was accused of killing Nasser Abu Hamid by way of medical neglect, a charge it denies, along with all key evidence. Fathi Khazem, the prominent father of Jenin Brigades fighters killed by Israeli forces, attended the Ramallah march with the mother of Abu Hamid.

The occupation forces have rounded up 6,500 Palestinians since the start of 2022, among those detainees were at least 153 women and 811 children, the majority of which have reportedly suffered from some form of physical and/or psychological abuse. This has come as a result of ‘Operation Break the Wave”, launched by Israel on March 31, aimed at brutally cracking down on the newly formed armed movements in the West Bank, and anyone who supports them.

In response to the news that Nasser Abu Hamid had been killed, a new armed group announced its formation in Ramallah, calling itself ‘The Masked Lions’. Hamas leader, Ismail Hanniyeh, called Abu Hamid’s death “a crime that will not go unpunished”, whilst Palestinian youths took to the streets of Abu Dis, Bethlehem, Al-Khalil, Nabi Saleh, Nablus, Ramallah, and beyond, to protest. Israeli forces in one instance shot and injured a Palestinian protester in Abu Dis, denying him medical attention and instead rag-dolling his body around and into a military jeep. The Lions Den group later claimed a number of shooting attacks against Israeli targets from a distance. At one point 5 shooting attacks were carried out in a single hour against Israeli forces. Israeli settlers again stormed al-Aqsa Mosque that day.

On Wednesday, Israeli military prison authorities announced a state of tension inside the “Naqab, Raymond, Ofer and Hadrim prisons”, after the decision was taken to transfer the prisoner, Dhafer Al-Rimawi, to solitary confinement. The former political prisoner, Mujahid Mazyad Al-Talfiti, was re-arrested by the occupation forces after they besieged a residential building in Nablus. They were confronted by fighters from the Nablus Brigades who opened fire on them during the attempt to arrest the Hamas affiliated activist.

Settlers again provocatively stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, whilst Zvika Vogel, Otzma Yehudit Party member of the Israeli Knesset stated: "We cannot carry out all religious teachings in Al-Aqsa Mosque, and therefore I believe that the status quo in Al-Aqsa Mosque must be changed." In Jaffa, 19-year-old Mohammed Zaitouneh was reported dead of gunshot wounds, in a growing trend of un-tackled violence within Palestinian communities in the 1948 territories.

In Gaza the Governmental Work Follow-up Committee of the Hamas-led authority declared the following dates holidays: “Sunday December 25, 2022, Sunday January 1, 2023, and Saturday January 7, 2023, are considered official holidays for all ministries and government departments, on the occasion of Christian denominations’ holidays” it stated.

Benjamin Netanyahu also announced that he had secured a deal to form a coalition government, which it was revealed would mean pursuing a strategy to annex the West Bank and to introduce the death penalty for Palestinians. His coalition agreement will place Religious Zionism’s Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir in control of many aspects of West Bank policy.

At night, Israeli occupation forces announced their intention to storm Nablus in order to escort a few hundred extremist Israeli settlers to the Joseph’s Tomb site. Palestinian resistance forces and unarmed protesters alike took to the streets to confront their military vehicles. Occupation forces stormed Nablus from Beit Furik checkpoint, demonstrators gathered on Amman street & in other areas to confront them, the Nablus battalion then opened fire on Israeli forces near Balata refugee camp.

On Thursday, in the early hours of the morning Israeli forces used drones and opened fire, whilst the incursion into Nablus continued, injuring over 10 Palestinians and killing 23-year-old Ahmad Daragmeh, a football player from Tubas. Western media attempted to frame Daragmeh as a militant due to his affiliation with the Hamas Party, however, it is unclear as to whether he was active in fighting when killed. A sit-in was staged at Birzeit University, located near Ramallah, in opposition to threats from the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Security Forces to arrest Palestinian students for political activism.

Israeli settlers not only provocatively penetrated the al-Aqsa Mosque compound again, but also organised a protest outside its gates with Israeli flags later that night. Protests continued in the West Bank, with demonstrators confronting Israeli forces throughout the occupied territory.

An Iranian report indicated that Israeli Mossad had been in contact with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on strategies to recruit spies in Lebanon, this came as reports continued to emerge of tensions on the Lebanese border with Israeli occupied Palestine. There has been a reported increase this year, between Hezbollah intelligence units and Israeli forces, of 420%.

On Friday, the occupation forces handed over the body of Maha al-Zaatari, who was killed by Israeli fire next to the Ibrahimi Mosque 8 months ago, allowing for her family to finally hold her funeral and begin grieving. Protests across the West Bank resulted in around 50 injuries to varying degrees, many of them due to tear gas smoke inhalation. Israeli forces began using red coloured tear gas, which raised fears of the toxicity of the substance, likely to be a newly tested munition.

65,000 Palestinians prayed Friday prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque, answering calls to increase the numbers in order to protect the site. A group of Palestinians even raised a banner dedicated to the armed wing of Hamas, the al-Qassam Brigades, after the group has sworn to protect the site from destruction by settler extremists.

In the early hours of the morning, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, Naim Mahmoud Badir from the town of Kafr Qassem, carried out a car ramming which injured three Israeli police members, he was shot dead soon after. The Jenin brigades also carried out a shooting towards the illegal Israeli settlement ‘Shaked’, damaging a window and prompting Israeli forces to attempt to find the resistance fighters.

A little girl, only 1 and a half years old was injured, after Israeli settlers pelted stones and Palestinian vehicles near the village of Osrin, south-east of Nablus. Young Palestinians threw stones at settlers in Jericho and near the Kedumim settlement between Nablus and Qalqilya.

Whilst the total death toll, for Palestinians killed by Israeli fire, now sits at 230 for this year - 171 killed in the West Bank, 53 in Gaza, and 6 in the 1948 territories - resistance is also on the rise. This week 302 acts of resistance were tallied between the 16th and 22nd; including 38 shooting operations, one attempted car-ramming, and 25 acts of throwing Molotov cocktails aimed at the Israeli military and settlers. Two settlers were reportedly injured, whilst the Israeli military did not disclose any possible casualties, only damage to vehicles.

The rising trend of mass support for armed struggle against the occupation is again growing in the West Bank, as noted by both Israeli and Palestinian media. This likely comes with the effectiveness of both the armed groups, formed inside the West Bank, in garnering public support and the growing brutal conditions imposed upon Palestinian civilians in the territory, which stem from Israel’s amendment of its ‘Open-fire policy’ that allowed for shoot-to-kill methods to be used against Palestinians that do not pose an immediate threat to soldiers.