Since the start of hostilities in Gaza on October 7, Israeli forces have killed 79 Palestinians, including 20 children, in the West Bank, said Thursday’s United Nations daily report on the situation in both territories. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated that 13 Palestinians (five children) died that same day alone, most of them in a drone attack in the Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarem. An Israeli soldier was killed.

Yesterday, in Bethlehem, three people were wounded by gunfire from Israeli soldiers near the northern entrance to the city during a march protesting the Israeli bombing of Gaza. Twelve people were arrested. Seven others were also shot yesterday in Al Bireh, near Ramallah.

OCHA spokesperson in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, noted that six Palestinians had been killed in Nablus and Ramallah “at the hands of armed settlers, and several Palestinian communities have been forced to abandon their lands,” corroborating a new escalation in the West Bank. “Likewise,” Shamdasani added, “an increase in arbitrary arrests of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and of Arab Israelis in Israel has been observed.”

Between Thursday night and early yesterday morning there were dozens of raids in the occupied territories, while Jewish settlers, with the help of soldiers, kept the main roads of the West Bank blocked, preventing even ambulances from moving.

According to the Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem, the settlers would be taking advantage of the war in Gaza to advance in the so-called Area C of the West Bank, which depends entirely on the Israeli occupation authorities, unlike areas A and B. , which officially fall under the Palestinian Authority chaired by Mahmoud Abbas. Israeli Prime Minister Beniamin Netanyahu promised in 2019 to annex most of Area C (comprising 60% of the West Bank), including the Jordan Valley. Such a plan was backed by the alleged “deal of the century” promoted by Donald Trump.

Specifically, and according to B’Tselem, the events of recent days indicated that the settlers advanced, unmolested, east of Ramallah, in the Jordan Valley and in the hills south of Hebron, where a thousand live in poverty. of Palestinians practically isolated in a dozen villages attached to an army firing range.

B’Tselem reported on Thursday of settlers sometimes armed and escorted by soldiers “attacking residents, in some cases at gunpoint or shooting at them (…), damaging property, stealing livestock, felling trees, destroying tanks and pipelines. water and solar panels…”. “In numerous cases, settlers and soldiers together ordered residents to leave their homes.” And yesterday, dozens of settlers protected by soldiers attacked farmers while they were harvesting olives in Salfit (near the illegal settlement of Ariel) and burned the olive trees, the Palestinian Maan agency reported.

Since October 7, 98 families (552 people) have had to flee their homes, according to B’Tselem data. In recent days, Israeli forces have detained more than 900 Palestinians in the West Bank, where Israeli media and the army itself speak of a possible “third front” (the second would be the north of Israel, where the Lebanese Hizbullah is pressing). The army says it is on high alert and preparing for attacks, including by Hamas militants. Although the presence of the Islamist organization is small in this territory and lacks influence, slogans in its favor could be heard at a march in Ramallah this week.

Gaza and the West Bank, territories separated with the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 and reunited under occupation in 1967, have lived apart for decades, and even more so since the blockade of the strip began in 2005. Hamas found roots in the Conservative Gaza, but not so much in the West Bank, mainly thanks to pressure from Fatah, the Palestinian Authority police and Israeli forces. However, Hamas has claimed to defend the Palestinian cause in the face of everything that happens in both Jerusalem and the West Bank.