Israel continues its brutal military campaign in the Gaza Strip and near-daily raids into Palestinian cities in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 40,534 people in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023. At the same time Israeli troops or settlers have killed more than 650 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, according to an AFP tally based on Palestinian health ministry figures.
In complete disregard to international human rights norms and international law, the Israeli forces once again raided several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank yesterday and killed at least nine Palestinians.
Reacting to increased Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank, Secretary-General of the Arab League, Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said the Israeli occupation army is engaging in a war of genocide everywhere against the Palestinians. He said Israeli military operations in West Bank have nothing to do with October 7 attacks and the objective is to make life impossible for Palestinians on their territories, whether in occupied West Bank, or in the enclave through persistent intimidation and bloodshed to accomplish the dispossession schemes and ultimately liquidate the Palestinian cause.
The Arab League chief emphasised this dangerous development lays bare the Israeli intention to reannex the Palestinian territories in implementation of the Israeli far-right agenda, stressing that this Israeli orientation cannot be separated from the dangerous remarks ministers in the Israeli government have made on Al Aqsa Mosque which are utterly rejected.
Qatar has also strongly condemned statements by the National Security Minister in the Israeli occupation government that called for building a synagogue inside the blessed Al Aqsa Mosque, and considered it an extension of attempts to change the historical and legal status of Al Aqsa Mosque and a provocation to the feelings of Muslims around the world.
UN also said Israel’s large-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank yesterday “risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation” in the Palestinian territory. Israel’s operations in the cities “and the killing of at least nine Palestinians, two of them reportedly children, take the overall death toll in the West Bank since October 7 to 637,” UN Human Rights Office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement.”This represents the highest number of fatalities over a period of eight months since the UN first started recording casualties in the West Bank two decades ago.”
The United States has also announced new sanctions on Israeli settlers in the West Bank over violence against Palestinians. “Extremist settler violence in the West Bank causes intense human suffering ,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
