Human Rights and Democracy Media Center- SHAMS, affirms that the daily incursions of the cities, towns, villages, and refugee camps in the West Bank, by the Israeli Occupation Forces, come within the policy of the current government of the occupying power, to kill as much as possible of Palestinians and destroy the infrastructure. Additionally, the occupation forces are destroying the civic establishments alongside with commencing daily mass arrest campaigns. Killing and destroying the infrastructure became a systematically organized policy applied by the occupation forces against Palestinians where the situation of the streets in Jenin Refugee Camp, Tulkarem Refugee Camp, and Balatta Refugee Camp, are clear evidence of such a policy. In addition to that, the Israeli invading forces intentionally killed many Palestinians. SHAMS Center affirms that the recent escalation is an indication of the willingness of the occupation to commence wider attacks in the West Bank within the coming period.
SHAMS Center warns that the crimes committed by Israel (Occupying power) in the West Bank are no less horrible than the genocide war and forcible displacement crimes being committed in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government is making use of the fact that the world is busy following up on what is going on in the Gaza Strip, to proceed with its aggressive and colonial expansion policies in the West Bank. The applied policies in the West Bank take the form of systematic killing, confiscating land, building settlements, and destroying the infrastructure. Additionally, the Israeli forces are imposing restricted closure on the Palestinian localities through a series of military checkpoints. The policy of collective punishment is practiced against Palestinians where houses are demolished as well as other forms of punishment. On a related level, the Israeli government is robbing the customs revenues of the Palestinian Authority, which will ban paying the salaries of the public sector employees and consequently wielding starvation among Palestinians and destroying their national economy. Such procedures are dedicated to degrading Palestinians and expelling them from their land.
SHAMS Center appreciates the official and popular stances that reject the plans of the Israeli occupation to uproot Palestinians from their land. The steadfastness of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip has a vital role in defeating the plan of forcible expelling that the Occupation State was intending to implement. The steadfastness of people and popular and Arabic rejection of the Uprooting Project contributed to defeating it. Uprooting and displacing Palestinians have always been a major pillar within the discourse of Zionism Thought, which is based on ethnic cleansing and expelling Palestinians from their land.
SHAMS Center emphasizes that the daily crimes and assaults committed by the Israeli occupation government against Palestinians, including killing civilians and targeting civic facilities, such as residential buildings, hospitals, healthcare centers, schools, and places of worship, along with the destruction of infrastructure, constitute a serious violation of international humanitarian law, especially Article 18 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which stipulates that “under no circumstances shall attacks be made on civilian hospitals organized to give care to the wounded and sick, the infirm, and maternity cases, and respect and protection must be afforded to them at all times.” It also constitutes a violation of the Hague Convention on the Laws and Customs of War on Land of 1907, particularly Article 27, which states that “in sieges and bombardments, all necessary steps must be taken to spare, as far as possible, buildings dedicated to religion, art, science, or charitable purposes, historic monuments.
SHAMS Center calls upon the United Nations organization and its affiliated institutions and entities, the governments of countries with diplomatic representation in the occupation state, the consuls of accredited countries to the Palestinians, and governmental and non-governmental institutions, to urgently take action and exert pressure on the Israeli occupation government to halt its daily aggressive practices against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Furthermore, it urges the Israeli government to comply with the rules of international law.