Entire Palestinian communities have been forced into lockdown in parts of the occupied West Bank, a human rights group warns, as the Israeli military continues to carry out wide-scale, deadly raids in the territory.
Save the Children said on Friday that families in the northern West Bank have been forced to shelter inside their homes due to the fear of violence from the Israeli military, which launched an intensified operation earlier this week.
The lockdowns are “keeping children out of school, jeopardising family incomes and increasing risk of physical violence and child detention from the Israeli military”, the child rights group said.
Israeli troops laid siege to large swaths of the northeastern Tubas governorate, starting on Wednesday, and carried out a series of major raids in other cities and towns across the occupied West Bank, including Jenin.
Israeli forces have injured dozens of people in the Tubas area since the raids began, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported on Friday, while more than 160 others have been detained.
Israel has said the operation aims to root out Palestinian armed groups, but residents say the military has carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians, blocked journalists and ambulances, and damaged infrastructure.
An incident that was caught on camera in Jenin on Thursday, showing Israeli forces killing two unarmed Palestinian men as they attempted to surrender, has also drawn widespread condemnation.
Attacks on Gaza
Meanwhile, Israel has continued to carry out attacks on Gaza, despite a United States-brokered truce with Hamas that came into effect last month.
On Friday, several Israeli attacks were reported near southern Gaza’s Khan Younis and Rafah, and an Israeli drone attack killed a Palestinian in Bani Suheila, a town east of Khan Younis, according to a local medical report.
At least 347 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the truce began on October 10, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Health in the enclave.
Ismail al-Thawabta, director of Gaza’s Government Media Office, also said on Friday that 535 Israeli violations had been documented since the ceasefire took hold.
Al-Thawabta said in a statement shared on Telegram that the flow of aid into the war-battered territory remains far below what was agreed upon in the truce.
“The [Israeli] occupation has allowed only 9,930 trucks to enter Gaza out of the nearly 28,000 requested – a mere 35 percent – thus turning aid into a tool of war used for pressure rather than a legal or humanitarian obligation,” he said.
“The humanitarian situation in Gaza is deteriorating at an unprecedented rate, and the Israeli aggression has destroyed infrastructure and essential services.”