Israel's Violent Invasion of West Bank Parallels the Early Stages of War on Gaza: UN Rapporteur on Palestine
An Israeli army bulldozer digs up a road in the Nur Shams refugee camp in Tulkarem on the second day of a large-scale military operation in the north of the occupied West Bank on August 29, 2024. Photo by JAAFAR ASHTIYEH/AFP via Getty Images.
Israel is in the midst of its largest scale assault of the occupied West Bank since 2002.
Beginning in the predawn hours on Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli forces in columns of armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by drones and helicopters stormed into refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. Israel also carried out drone strikes and snipers have reportedly been firing on people inside Jenin. Internet and cell phone service, as well as water and sewage systems, were shut down in parts of the West Bank as Israeli forces conducted house raids. Local residents have reported widespread demolitions of their homes and streets and the blocking of ambulances and medical workers attempting to reach wounded people. Israeli forces surrounded the main hospital in Jenin and have reportedly been searching people entering and exiting the facility.
“This is an incredible scaling up of the violence of the preceding months and in particular weeks,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, “with a full military assault, destroying hospitals, destroying roads, destroying vital infrastructure which had already been severely damaged during the preceding months, and Voila!, telling the Palestinians to go, ordering mass evacuations.”
In an interview with Drop Site News, Albanese said, “I see a serious pattern parallel with what is happening in the Gaza Strip”—“patterns of torture, of destruction, of extrajudicial killings, of uprooting that are very similar to Gaza.”
“It is my responsibility to warn against the risk of the genocide leaking into the West Bank. There is similar rhetoric, similar patterns, and escalating violence, ordering similar things.”
Brandishing Israel’s well-worn propaganda ensign of self-defense, foreign minister Israel Katz has described the operation as “a war in every sense,” declaring that Tel Aviv would approach its invasion of parts of the West Bank “exactly as we deal with terror infrastructure in Gaza, including the temporary evacuation of Palestinian civilians.”
“We are in the post 9/11 era,” Albanese said. “So resistance movements are naturally considered terrorist first, and then it's very difficult to dismantle this perception which is so entrenched, so ingrained in ordinary people's mindset. So if politicians say that—and journalists amplify it—probably this is going to convince people that they are protecting all of us from these masses of savages.”
Kamala Harris Pledges Unequivocal Support for the Israel
Israel’s threat of waging a Gaza-style war against the Palestinians of the West Bank comes as the White House has spent weeks assuring the public that it is working “tirelessly” for a ceasefire deal. The administration’s actions, however, make such claims appear cynical. Since the end of July, there has been a spike in U.S. weapons shipments to Israel and August saw the second largest number of military cargo planes delivering munitions and other equipment at Nevatim Air Base since the launch of the war last October.
In the midst of the attacks on the West Bank, Vice President Kamala Harris did her first sit-down interview with a media outlet since she was anointed Democratic nominee for president. Speaking to CNN’s Dana Bash, Harris affirmed her ironclad support for Israel, saying she would not withhold weapons shipments. “Let me be very clear. I’m unequivocal and—and unwavering in my commitment to Israel’s defense and its ability to defend itself,” Harris said. “And that’s not gonna change.”
Harris made no reference to the siege of the West Bank. The Biden-Harris administration has said little publicly about the Israeli invasion there, reiterating its line that Israel has a right to defend its “very real security needs, which includes countering terrorist activity in the West Bank.” An administration official claimed in a statement to reporters that the U.S. opposes “mass displacements of Palestinians in the West Bank,” but added, “We recognize that localized evacuation orders may be necessary in certain instances to protect civilian lives during sensitive counter-terrorism operations.”