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'State-Backed Terrorism': Israeli Settler Attacks on West Bank Palestinians Hit Record High
"The systematic escalation forms part of a broader effort to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank by depopulating it and expanding the territorial and operational influence of settlements," said one group.
Nov 11, 2025
Palestine defenders this week decried the ongoing surge in attacks by Israeli settler-colonists on Palestinians in the illegally occupied West Bank, which the United Nations humanitarian office says are occurring at the highest rate it has ever seen.
Israeli settlers seeking to ethnically cleanse Palestinians from their lands in order to steal them have ramped up violent attacks on local residents including olive farmers, as well as their trees and equipment, during the crucial harvesting season. Journalists who document the assaults and international activists trying to protect locals from the rampaging assailants have also been attacked.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Friday that "October 2025 recorded the highest monthly number of Israeli settler attacks since OCHA began documenting such incidents in 2006, with more than 260 attacks resulting in casualties, property damage, or both—an average of eight incidents per day."
"Settler violence during this olive harvest season has reached the highest level recorded in recent years, with about 150 attacks documented so far, resulting in the injury of more than 140 Palestinians and the vandalism of over 4,200 trees and saplings across 77 villages," OCHA added.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) says it has documented 704 settler attacks this year through October, up from 675 in all of 2024. Israel's military says that police and Shin Bet—the internal state security agency—have failed to address this violence due to pressure from members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government, right-wing lawmakers, and religious leaders who believe that Israel has a divinely ordained right to steal all of Palestine.
However, Israeli and international human rights groups have long documented IDF participation or complicity in settler attacks.
On Tuesday, at least dozens of masked settlers launched a sweeping assault around the village of Beit Lid east of Tulkarm, setting fire to farmland, vehicles, and the al-Junaidi dairy factory.
The settlers reportedly wounded at least four Palestinians, attacked IDF soldiers, and damaged an army vehicle. Israeli police said they arrested four Israelis who allegedly took part in the raid.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported additional settler attacks Tuesday targeting a Bedouin community and the nearby village of Deir Sharaf, east of Beit Lid. Videos show residents trying to extinguish fires set by the attackers. Eyewitnesses told reporters that IDF troops prevented emergency responders from helping to put out the fires.
Over the weekend, dozens of masked settlers attacked Palestinian olive harvesters, activists, and journalists, injuring more than 10 people including Reuters photographer Raneen Sawafta—who was severely beaten—people who tried to help her, a Palestinian medic, an IDF reservist, and local farmers.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA) said it was "appalled" by the surge in settler attacks.
"Journalists, both local and foreign, have proven to be a clear target as they document an unprecedented level of unchecked violence against Palestinians during this year's olive harvest," FPA said. "Israeli forces routinely harass and intimidate journalists, in some cases detaining them and threatening them with deportation. This is all part of a deepening climate of hostility toward the media by Israeli authorities."
Palestinian human rights activist Ihab Hassan said Tuesday on social media: "Israeli settler terrorism in the West Bank is state-backed terrorism. Armed, funded, and protected by the Israeli government and army. The world must stop watching in silence. Sanction the Israeli government that enables and sponsors the settler terrorism."
Mohammed Hijaz, a West Bank olive farmer, told NPR Monday: "We want to live in peace. We don't want this war, and we want to be able to get to our land, and to have a better life than what we have right now."
Settler violence has surged as the world's attention was focused on Israel's genocidal assault and siege on Gaza, which has left more than 249,000 Palestinians dead, maimed, or missing since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
During that period, OCHA says Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including at least 213 children and 20 women—among them a 78-year-old who died after being denied medical care for a heart attack suffered during an IDF raid northwest of Ramallah last week.
The Trump administration—which supports Israel with billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic cover—has lifted limited sanctions imposed during the tenure of former President Joe Biden against the most extreme settlers, some of whom have been slapped with sanctions by other countries.
This, even as President Donald Trump and his administration publicly oppose Israeli moves to steal and colonize more and more of the West Bank, which has been under illegal occupation since 1967.
"The systematic escalation forms part of a broader effort to consolidate Israeli control over the West Bank by depopulating it and expanding the territorial and operational influence of settlements," the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement Sunday.
"This includes turning settlers into practical extensions of the army in attacks and land seizure operations, while imposing new patterns of field control that entrench separation and isolation between Palestinian communities, undermining any possibility of establishing a contiguous or independent Palestinian entity," the group added.
In a recent interview with ITV News' Peter Smith, Daniella Weiss, an extremist settler leader who advocates the ethnic cleansing of all Palestinians from not only the West Bank but also Gaza, denied that Israelis are attacking Palestinians in the West Bank.
Israeli settler leader Daniella Weiss tries to claim that "there is no settler violence" against Palestinians.
In response, ITV News' Peter Smith pulls out his phone and plays a video of a recent attack on a grandmother in the West Bank.
Watch her reaction: pic.twitter.com/2o2FWCDQOu
— Decensored News (@decensorednews) November 1, 2025
When asked by Smith who supports plans by Israel's far-right to annex the West Bank given their illegality under international law and even opposition from the Trump administration, Weiss—who is under British and Canadian sanctions—replied, "Our sovereignty's here anyway, 'cause we got it from God."
Asked if her understanding of "God's plan" includes divine endorsement of violence to force Palestinians from their lands, Weiss rejected the premise of the question and refused to view footage of settlers attacking an elderly Palestinian woman.
"There is violence against settlers," she insisted, "there is no settler violence."
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Israel Bombs Yemen as IDF Rolls Through Gaza City, Displacing Hundreds of Thousands
Dozens of Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombs and bullets, including many women and children, as IDF tanks and troops pushed deeper into Gaza City.
Sep 25, 2025
Israeli forces on Thursday resumed airstrikes on Yemen—whose Houthi rebels have been launching strikes targeting Israel in solidarity with Palestine—while pushing deeper into Gaza City, killing dozens of Palestinians, displacing hundreds of thousands of others, and trapping up to 1 million more.
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said dozens of warplanes and air support units pounded alleged "command headquarters of the Houthi General Staff” and other buildings used by members of the rebel army also known as Ansar Allah.
Thursday's strikes followed last week's IDF bombing of a media complex in the Yemeni capital Sanaa that killed 31 journalists and four other people including a child in what the Committee to Protect Journalists called the world's deadliest single attack on media workers in 16 years.
This, after an IDF airstrike last month assassinated Houthi officials including Prime Minister Ahmed al-Rahawi. US forces—which have been bombing Yemen since 2002 as part of the so-called War on Terror—have also carried out airstrikes in Yemen that have killed and wounded hundreds of civilians.
The Israeli and US strikes came in retaliation for Houthi missile and drone attacks on Israel and Red Sea shipping. The Houthis and Iran have been the only actors in the world that have answered Israel's genocidal war on Gaza with military force.
The latest Israeli bombing of Yemen came as IDF tanks and troops pushed deeper into Gaza City as part of Operation Gideon's Chariots 2, an offensive aimed at conquering, occupying, and ethnically cleansing Palestinians from the embattled coastal exclave.
Gaza officials said dozens of Palestinians have been killed since dawn Thursday, including 25 aid-seekers. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that "intensified strikes on Gaza City, including on tents, residential buildings, [and] infrastructure continue to inflict heavy casualties."
The relentless Israeli airstrikes that hit multiple areas across Gaza City today; forcing thousands of Palestinian families to flee their homes into overcrowded and unsafe areas with no shelter, food, or medical care. pic.twitter.com/5Oj9VqtDFY
— Daniella Modos - Cutter -SEN (@DmodosCutter) September 25, 2025
Among the victims of Thursday's IDF strikes were at least 10 children and three women killed when the houses and tents in which they were sheltering were bombed, according to The Associated Press.
UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said Thursday that Palestinian children are being “killed while sleeping, playing, queuing for food and water, [and] seeking medical care."
“They’ve been bombed, maimed, starved, burned alive, buried in the rubble of their homes, separated from their parents... scraping through the rubble for food, enduring amputations without anesthetic,” Fletcher added.
More than 300,000 Palestinians have fled for their lives amid Israel's onslaught and engineered famine, while as many as 1 million others remain trapped in Gaza.
At least 65,419 Palestinians have been killed by US-backed Israeli forces since October 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry—although experts caution that the actual death toll is likely much higher. More than 167,100 others have been wounded, and thousands more are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble.
Israel is facing a genocide case currently before the International Court of Justice in The Hague, where the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder and forced starvation.
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'Assault on Children': UNRWA Condemns Israeli Raids on East Jerusalem Schools
"Now, nearly 800 girls and boys—some as young as 6 years old—are left in shock and trauma."
May 08, 2025
Israeli occupation forces enforced a ban on the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees on Thursday by storming three schools in East Jerusalem, terrorizing children and staff as they shuttered the facilities and drawing condemnation from human rights defenders.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, heavily armed Israeli security forces raided the schools in the Shu'fat refugee camp in illegally occupied East Jerusalem, detaining one UNRWA employee and forcing around 550 children out of their classrooms as the invaders closed the facilities.
"As a result, UNRWA was forced to evacuate all children across the six schools it runs in East Jerusalem," UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said. "Now, nearly 800 girls and boys—some as young as 6 years old—are left in shock and trauma."
"Storming schools and forcing them shut is a blatant disregard of international law," Lazzarini added. "These schools are inviolable premises of the United Nations. By enforcing closure orders issued last month, the Israeli authorities are denying Palestinian children their basic right to learn. UNRWA schools must continue to be open to safeguard an entire generation of children."
The International Court of Justice—which is also weighing a genocide case against Israel over the U.S.-backed Gaza onslaught—is considering whether the Israeli government's ban on UNRWA violates international law.
Hundreds of UNRWA staffers and their relatives have been killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip since October 2023. Israel has bombed many UNRWA schools-turned-shelters in Gaza, including a Tuesday "double-tap" airstrike on school in the al-Bureij refugee camp that killed at least 30 of the more than 2,000 people sheltering there.
UNRWA officials also accuse Israeli forces of torturing kidnapped agency workers in a bid to elicit false confessions that they took part in the October 7, 2023 attack. UNRWA and much of the international community have condemned such allegations as baseless.
In the West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem, Israeli forces launched Operation Iron Wall in January. Israel says the invasion is targeting resistance fighters largely based in West Bank refugee camps. However, tens of thousands of people have been forcibly displaced by the offensive, which has killed numerous civilians.
According to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 900 Palestinians including nearly 200 children have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank since October 2023. Attacks by Israeli settler-colonists, sometimes aided by Israeli troops, have also killed, wounded, displaced, and terrorized West Bank residents as Israel's far-right government forges ahead with plans to steal more land from Palestinians, ethnically cleanse them, and open the door to further Israeli colonization.
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'Every Atrocity Imaginable': Litany of Israeli War Crimes Continues
"Genocide, ecocide, mass infanticide, rape, sexual assault, torture, slavery, sniping children, bombing hospitals, executing aid workers," said one critic. "We are funding an endless nightmare and it should haunt us forever."
Mar 31, 2025
As Israel Defense Forces bombing continued to kill and maim large numbers of Palestinians across the Gaza Strip over the weekend and into Monday, the discovery of the bodies of medical workers who were apparently executed by their captors and the publication of several reports in which Israeli soldiers admit to torturing prisoners and using civilians as human shields have drawn renewed war crimes accusations and calls for accountability.
On Sunday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it had recovered the bodies of 15 Palestinian first responders from a mass grave, including eight Red Crescent workers and six Civil Defense personnel, who were killed by Israeli forces on March 23 while traveling "on duty" in five ambulances, a fire truck, and a United Nations vehicle in the al-Hashashin area of southern Gaza.
Jonathan Whittall, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza, said Sunday that the first responders were picked off "one by one."
"Their bodies were gathered and buried in this mass grave," Whittall added. "We're digging them out with uniforms, with their gloves on. They were here to save lives. Instead, they ended up in a mass grave."
The IFRC condemns the killing of eight Palestine Red Crescent Society medics in Gaza.We are heartbroken. These dedicated humanitarians, killed while responding to the wounded, should have been protected. We mourn their loss and stand with the Palestine Red Crescent.Full statement: bit.ly/427LXxp
[image or embed]
— IFRC (@ifrc.org) March 30, 2025 at 11:47 AM
The Gaza Health Ministry said that "some of these bodies were bound and shot in the chest" before being "buried in a deep hole to prevent their identification."
Accusing Israel of a "heinous crime," the ministry called on U.N. agencies "and relevant international bodies to conduct an urgent investigation into these crimes and hold the occupation accountable for committing them."
An Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said troops opened fire on the convoy because it was "advancing suspiciously" toward their position.
"Following an initial assessment, it was determined that the forces had eliminated a Hamas military operative, Mohammad Amin Ibrahim Shubaki, who took part in the October 7 massacre, along with eight other terrorists from Hamas and the Islamic Jihad," the spokesperson claimed.
Israeli officials routinely claim—often with little or no evidence—that Palestinian first responders, United Nations workers, journalists, and other civilians that it kills are members of Hamas or other militant resistance groups.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) said in a statement Sunday that it is "outraged" by the killings, which it called "the single most deadly attack on Red Cross Red Crescent workers anywhere in the world since 2017."
"After seven days of silence and having access denied to the area of Rafah where they were last seen, the bodies of ambulance officers Mostafa Khufaga, Saleh Muamer, and Ezzedine Shaath and first responder volunteers Mohammad Bahloul, Mohammed Al-Heila, Ashraf Abu Labda, Raed Al Sharif, and Rifatt Radwan were retrieved today," the statement noted. "Ambulance officer Assad Al-Nassasra is still missing."
Noting that at least 30 Red Crescent workers and volunteers have been killed by Israeli forces during the war, IFRC secretary general Jagan Chapagain said: "I am heartbroken. These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not."
"Even in the most complex conflict zones, there are rules," Chapagain stressed. "These rules of international humanitarian law could not be clearer—civilians must be protected; humanitarians must be protected. Health services must be protected."
"Our network is in mourning, but this is not enough," he added. "Instead of another call on all parties to protect and respect humanitarians and civilians, I pose a question: When will this stop? All parties must stop the killing, and all humanitarians must be protected."
Journalist Mohammad Alsaafin compared the killings to last year's IDF massacre of 6-year-old Hind Rajab, five of her relatives, and two PRCS medics who rushed to the site of the attack in a doomed bid to rescue the wounded child after she called for help.
On Sunday, the British newspaper The Independent published an investigation into alleged Israeli torture of Palestinians detained at facilities including Ofer Prison in the illegally occupied West Bank and the notorious Sde Teiman base in the Negev Desert.
The report begins:
Handcuffed and cowering on the floor of a cell in a military base in southern Israel, the Palestinian found himself surrounded by five soldiers. Armed with dogs, the five reservists allegedly kicked, punched, and stamped on the man as he lay on the ground. Continuing their assault, they are accused of attacking him with Taser guns and sharp objects, sexually abusing him with these instruments. At one point, the soldiers allegedly stabbed him so hard that they pierced his buttocks and anus. The brutal alleged assault left the man hospitalized with a punctured lung, cracked ribs, and a tear in his rectum needing surgery for a stoma. He had not been charged with any crime.
The Independent noted details regarding some of the dozens of Palestinian detainees who have died in Israeli custody. The IDF is currently conducting its own probe into the deaths of at least 36 Sde Teiman prisoners, including one who died after allegedly being sodomized with an electric baton.
"The fact that we see some signs of abuse means that this is probably the tip of the iceberg," said one Israeli physician who has overseen multiple autopsies on dead detainees.
In an anonymous testimony leaked to The Independent, one Sde Teiman guard described a prevailing attitude of "Yes, they need to be beaten, it must be done."
"We began looking for opportunities to do so," the soldier said, adding that when he spoke out against the beating of one detainee, he was told, "Shut up, you leftist, these are Gazans, these are terrorists, what's wrong with you?"
One former Sde Teiman detainee said that "every meter you moved, they beat you, they hit you, they insulted you; they used dogs, tear gas, and electric shock."
IDF troops and veterans who were posted at Sde Teiman have provided similar details about "Israel's Abu Ghraib," a reference to the U.S. torture prison outside Baghdad during the Iraq War. Israeli doctors and medics have described forced starvation and 24-hour shackling so severe that prisoners have had limbs amputated.
A number of Sde Teiman guards were arrested last year following the leak of a video allegedly showing them raping a Palestinian detainee. The arrests outraged far-right Israelis, a mob of whom stormed Sde Teiman in a failed bid to free the accused guards.
As The Independent noted, "Among those held in [Israeli] detention are many of Gaza's healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and paramedics." Some of these prisoners have died in custody, including the renowned surgeon Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, who may have been raped to death, according to Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.
Earlier this month, an independent U.N. panel found that Israel has "systematically" used reproductive, sexual, and other forms of gender-based violence against Palestinian men, women, and children during the war.
The IDF has responded to these and other allegations by claiming it "operates in accordance with international law."
However, the International Criminal Court last year issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant—who ordered a "complete siege" of Gaza blamed for deadly starvation and disease there—for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity. Israel is also the subject of an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case brought by South Africa.
Also on Sunday, Haaretz, Israel's oldest newspaper, published a piece by an anonymous Israel soldier who said that "in Gaza, almost every IDF platoon keeps a human shield."
"We operate a sub-army of slaves," the soldier said, describing how innocent Palestinians are used to check buildings for Hamas fighters or booby traps before IDF troops enter.
"I recently saw that the IDF's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opened six investigations into the use of Palestinian civilians as human shields, and my jaw dropped," he wrote. "I've seen cover-ups before, but this is a new low."
Previous reporting has detailed the IDF's widespread use of Palestinian civilians—including children—as human shields in Gaza. The IDF even has a name for the practice—the "mosquito protocol." In one case, an 80-year-old man was used as a human shield before being shot dead by Israeli troops.
The IDF's thoroughly documented use of noncombatants as human shields stands in start contrast with mostly baseless claims of Hamas using Palestinian civilians in such a manner.
The new reports come as Israeli forces continued their assault on Gaza. Health and medical officials in Gaza said at least 41 Palestinians were killed in airstrikes throughout the strip on Monday, the second day of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr. This followed the killing of at least 64 Palestinians across Gaza on Sunday.
Approximately 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since Israel resumed its assault on the embattled coastal enclave on March 18, including hundreds of children. Israel's 542-day annihilation of Gaza has left more than 175,000 Palestinians dead, wounded, or missing since October 7, 2023, when Hamas led the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.
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Humanitarian Groups Dread 2025 Aid Shortfall as Trump Term Looms
"At a time when the richest people on Earth can go to space as a tourist," said one advocate, "it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter."
Dec 04, 2024
As the United Nations humanitarian agency and its partner organizations launched the annual Global Humanitarian overview on Wednesday to appeal for aid ahead of 2025, officials shared sobering numbers: 305 million people in dire need of assistance, 190 million people the agencies believe they can help next year if funding demands are met, and $47 billion that's needed to help the people facing the greatest threats.
Tom Fletcher, under-secretary-general at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said governments, particularly those in wealthy countries like the United States, face "a choice" as the world bears witness to starvation, increasingly frequent climate disasters, and other suffering in Gaza, Sudan, Yemen, and elsewhere.
"We can respond to these numbers with generosity, with compassion, with genuine solidarity for those in the most dire need on the planet—or we can carry on," said Fletcher at a news briefing. "We can choose to leave them alone to face these crises. We can choose to let them down."
Fletcher and other humanitarian leaders noted that as of last month, just 43% of the $50 billion funding appeal made for 2024 had been met.
Food assistance in Syria has been cut by 80% as a result of the large funding gap, while protection services in Myanmar and water and sanitation aid in Yemen have also been reduced.
Fletcher said that with another major funding shortfall expected in 2025, OCHA and its partners are expecting to be forced to make "ruthless" decisions to direct aid to those most in need—likely leaving out 115 million people.
Fears that funding needs will be far from met in 2025 are arising partially from the election last month of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who pursued significant cuts during his first term to agencies including the U.N. Population Fund, UNAIDS, the World Health Organization, and the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
"America is very much on our minds at the moment, we're facing the election of a number of governments who will be more questioning of what the United Nations does and less ideologically supportive of this humanitarian effort that we've laid out in this report," said Fletcher. "But it's our job to frame the arguments in the right way to land and not to give up. And so I'll head to Washington. I'll spend a lot of time in Washington, I imagine, over the next few months, engaging with the new administration, making the case to them, just as I'll spend a lot of time in other capitals where people might be skeptical about the work that we are doing."
Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary-General Jan Egeland, who led OCHA for three years, told Al Jazeera that U.S. funding under the Trump administration is "a tremendous question mark."
"Should the U.S. administration cut its humanitarian funding, it could be more complex to fill the gap of growing needs," said Egeland.
The U.S. is the largest humanitarian donor in the world, contributing $10 billion last year—but its donations pale in comparison to its military spending, which was budgeted at more than $841 billion in 2024, and the earnings of its top corporations.
As NRC noted, Facebook parent company Meta earned $47.4 billion—about the same amount humanitarian agencies are requesting this year—before income taxes in 2023.
Without naming billionaire SpaceX CEO Elon Musk—a Trump ally and megadonor who's expected to have a role in his new administration—Camilla Waszink, director of partnership and policy at NRC, called out the widening gap between the world's richest people and those in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
"At a time when the richest people on Earth can go to space as a tourist and trillions of U.S. dollars are used annually on global military expenditure, it is incomprehensible that we as an international community are unable to find the necessary funding to provide displaced families with shelter and prevent children from dying of hunger," said Waszink. "There is an urgent need for a revamp of global solidarity. Existing donor countries must ensure assistance keeps pace with needs and inflation, and emerging economies should compete to become among the most generous donors in the same way they compete to host expensive international sports events."
"It is devastating to know that millions of people in need will not receive necessary assistance next year because of the growing lack of funding for the humanitarian response. With a record number of conflicts ongoing, donors are cutting aid budgets that displaced and conflict-affected people rely on to survive," she added. "Conflicts and a blatant disregard for protection of civilians are driving massive humanitarian needs. It is essential that donors provide funding, but they must also invest in ending conflicts, bringing violations to a halt and preventing new needs from developing."
Fletcher noted that in addition to conflicts like Israel's U.S.-backed assault on Gaza, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the civil war in Sudan, the climate crisis is a major driver of growing humanitarian needs.
"2024 will be the hottest year on record," said Fletcher. "Presumably 2025 will then be the hottest year on record. Floods, droughts, heatwaves, wildfires affecting millions. We're on the brink of surpassing the 1.5°C in warming, and that will hit hardest in the countries that have actually contributed least to climate change. It wipes out food systems. It wipes out livelihoods, it forces communities to move from their homes and land. Drought has caused 65% of agricultural economic damage over the last 15 years, worsening food insecurity."
In conflict zones and in regions affected by the climate emergency, said Fletcher, "it's our mission to do more."
"My people are desperate to get out there and deliver because they really are on the frontline," he said. "They can see what is needed, but we need these resources. That's our call to action. And we also need the world to do more. Those with power to do more—to challenge this era of impunity and to challenge this era of indifference."
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Killing of Woman Harvester Underscores 'War-Like' Israeli Assault on West Bank Olive Growers
"The olive season has turned into a season of killing for the Palestinian people, whether at the hands of the Israeli army or armed settlers," said one observer.
Oct 18, 2024
The killing of a 59-year-old woman who eyewitnesses said was shot in the back by a member of the Israel Defense Forces while she was harvesting olives on her land in the West Bank on Thursday highlighted what one United Nations official called a "war-like" assault by Israeli soldiers and settlers in the illegally occupied Palestinian territory.
Hanan Abu Salameh was working with relatives in her family's olive grove in the village of Faqqua, located east of Jenin in the northern West Bank, when IDF soldiers posted on the nearby separation barrier along the Israeli border opened fire on them, Faris Abu Salameh, the slain woman's son, told Middle East Eye.
Abu Salameh—who saw his mother get shot—said his family and other villagers had permission from Israeli occupation authorities to harvest olives on their lands if they stayed at least 100 meters (328 feet) from the wall.
"We were much further than that from the wall," he said. "All of a sudden they started shooting randomly. We started collecting our things to leave and moved away. My father waved his white hat in the air hoping they would stop. They shot her in the back as we were fleeing the shooting."
The IDF said Friday that it has suspended a deputy commander of the battalion in which the soldier who allegedly shot Abu Salameh served.
"An investigation has been opened by the military police investigating the incident," the IDF said in a statement. "The commander of the force at the time of the incident has been suspended from her position until the end of the investigations."
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that it has received reports that settlers have carried out 32 attacks against Palestinians and their property, including farms, this month alone. The agency also said that about 600 olive trees—which take 10 years or more to reach maturity—have been destroyed, stolen, or vandalized by Israeli settler-colonists.
"It is, frankly, very concerning that it's not only attacks on people, but it's attacks on their olive groves as well," OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke said at a Geneva press conference on Friday. "The olive harvest is an economic lifeline for tens of thousands of Palestinian families in the West Bank."
According to the Palestinian Farmers' Union, olives are the number one agricultural product in the West Bank. Between a quarter and one-third of the West Bank's population is estimated to work with olive trees and associated products, including oil and soap. Israeli occupation forces have severely and systematically restricted Palestinians' access to their own land, causing serious economic losses.
"Israeli forces have been using lethal, war-like tactics in the West Bank, raising serious concerns over excessive use of force and deepening people's humanitarian needs," Laerke added.
Israeli attacks on olive farmers began on the very first day of this year's harvest season earlier this month, when dozens of masked settlers wounded at least 11 Palestinians including women and children. Settlers including members of the violent extremist group Hilltop Youth have also stolen land from Palestinians in the West Bank.
The United States and other nations have imposed sanctions on a handful of the most violent Israeli settlers after incidents including multiple deadly pogroms during which IDF troops have protected and sometimes joined the attackers.
However, the U.S. is also Israel's number one international backer, providing the key Mideast ally with tens of billions of dollars in military aid and diplomatic cover including vetoes of multiple U.N. Security Council cease-fire resolutions.
This, even as Israel is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for its conduct in a war of annihilation that has left more than 150,000 Palestinians in Gaza dead, maimed, or missing and millions more forcibly displaced, homeless, starved, and sickened.
In the West Bank, more than 750 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more wounded by Israeli soldiers and settlers since last October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Ramallah. During that same period, more than 40 Israeli soldiers and civilians have been killed by Palestinians resisting what David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli prime minister, acknowledged in the 1930s was the "usurpation" of their land by Jewish colonizers.
"The West Bank is Palestinian land," the California-based advocacy group Institute For Middle East Understanding (IMEU) said on social media Friday. "Israeli soldiers have no legal right to be there, yet they have relentlessly invaded Palestinian towns and cities, killing and displacing those who rightfully live there."
More than 700,000 Israelis live in over 140 settlements in the occupied West Bank. Under international law including the Fourth Geneva Convention, both Israel's 57-year occupation of Palestine and its settlements are illegal. In July, the ICJ
issued an advisory opinion that Israel's occupation is an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately.
"The Biden administration has a duty under U.S. and international law to stop arming Israel as it continues its violence across Gaza, the West Bank, and Lebanon," IMEU added. "Every weapon the U.S. provides enables Israel to kill more civilians and prolong this devastation."
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Palestinians Mourn Elderly Nonviolent Activist Beaten to Death by IDF in West Bank
Israeli forces also killed a Palestinian boy on his way home from school in the occupied territory.
Oct 08, 2024
Palestinians are mourning the death of a 66-year-old nonviolent activist who was brutally beaten by Israeli troops in the illegally occupied West Bank on Monday.
Middle East Monitor reported that Israeli occupation forces raided the home of Ziad Abu Ehlayyel in Dura, near Hebron, in an effort to arrest one of his sons. The soldiers beat the elderly man until he lost consciousness. He was rushed to Dura Hospital, where he passed away a short time later.
Abu Ehlayyel was a well-known community activist with a history of confronting—and being assaulted by—Israeli troops. The Palestine Chronicle published a video montage of some of his best-known encounters with occupation forces.
Quds News Network, the source of much of the Chronicle's video, also published footage showing Abu Ehlayyel stepping in front of Israeli troops as they're firing on Palestinian protesters.
"We don't want you to shoot anyone, we don't want you to kill anyone; this is a nonviolent procession, why do you keep shooting at them?" Abu Ehlayyel asks the soldiers in the video. "Why don't you stop your settlers from attacking us?"
Also on Monday, Israeli occupation forces shot and killed Hatem Ghaith, who according to reports was either 12 or 13 years old, during a raid in the village of Kafr Aqab, north of Jerusalem.
Defense for Children International-Palestine said Ghaith was on his way home from school when Israeli occupation forces raided the nearby Qalandia refugee camp. Israeli troops then opened fire on a group of young Palestinians, shooting Ghaith in the stomach from a distance of approximately 100-150 feet. The boy was rushed to Ramallah Governmental Hospital, where he was pronounced dead after unsuccessful resuscitation attempts.
Since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, the world's attention has largely been focused on Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed or wounded around 150,000 Palestinians and displaced, starved, or sickened millions more in a war for which the U.S.-backed country is on trial for genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Meanwhile, attacks by Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 695 Palestinians—more than 1 in 5 of whom are children—in the West Bank, according to the most recent figures from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Last week, at least 18 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Tulkarem refugee camp. An Israeli military spokesperson said the target of the strike was a Hamas official in charge of infrastructure in the camp.
OCHA has also documented more than 1,400 attacks by Jewish settler-colonists against Palestinians in the West Bank, as well as many
attacks on civilian infrastructure and agriculture including the olive trees upon which many Palestinians rely for their livelihoods.
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Sudan Famine a 'Shameful Stain on Our Collective Conscience,' Says Top UN Official
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan. But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Aug 06, 2024
In an urgent appeal for financial and other resources, two top United Nations human rights officials on Tuesday condemned the world's inadequate response to a nascent famine in Sudan.
The U.N. Famine Review Committee announced last week that famine now exists in the Zamzam refugee camp near al-Fashir in North Darfur, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Sudanese are sheltering amid 15 months of a civil war that's displaced more than 10 million people and cut off delivery of desperately needed food and other aid.
Other parts of Sudan—including Greater Darfur, South Kordofan, and Khartoum—are at risk of famine.
"This announcement should stop all of us cold because when famine happens, it means we are too late," Edem Wosornu, director of the Operations and Advocacy Division at the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said Tuesday.
"It means we did not do enough. It means we, the international community, have failed," she added, pointing to the numerous warnings of imminent famine over recent months. "This is an entirely man-made crisis and a shameful stain on our collective conscience."
As U.N. News reported:
The Sudanese National Army and a rival, formerly allied military, known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have been battling since April 2023, pushing "millions of civilians into a quagmire of violence and with it, death, injury, and inhumane suffering treatment."
A staggering 26 million people are facing acute hunger... More than 10 million people have been forced to flee their homes, including some 726,000 displaced from Sennar state following recent RSF advances.
Sudan's once vibrant capital, Khartoum, now lies in ruins, the national healthcare system has collapsed, and recent heavy rains in Kassala and North Darfur have increased the risk of cholera and other waterborne diseases. An entire generation of children is missing out on a second straight year of education.
"Let me be clear: It is still possible to stop this freight train of suffering that is charging through Sudan," Wosornu stressed. "But only if we respond with the urgency that this moment demands."
Justin Brady, who heads OCHA's Sudan office, told U.N. News on Monday that "if we don't have enough resources and we don't have enough access, it is going to be very difficult to stop famine conditions from taking hold" in other parts of Sudan.
"Access continues to be a major problem," he continued. "And some donors have seen that and said, well, we'll give you funding when you get access."
"Second of all, when we do get access, we need to take advantage of those openings very quickly," Brady added. "If we don't, they will close very quickly. So not having enough resources... Our appeal for this year is only a third funded, under $900 million received."
Echoing Brady, Wosornu said that "we are pushing from every possible angle to stop this catastrophe from getting worse, but we cannot go very far without the access and resources we need."
Wosornu outlined the humanitarian community's four key demands:
- Warring parties must end the conflict;
- They must uphold their obligations under international law;
- They must allow rapid, safe, and unimpeded humanitarian access across all possible routes; and
- The international community must provide adequate funding—OCHA is seeking $2.7 billion—to support aid operations.
"Assistance delayed is assistance denied for the many Sudanese civilians who are literally dying of hunger during the time it takes for clearances to come through, permits to be granted, and flood waters to subside," Wosornu warned.
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UN Warns Israeli Ground Invasion Rafah Will Lead to 'Slaughter of Civilians'
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," said a top U.N. aid official. "No humanitarian plan can counter that."
May 03, 2024
The United Nations' humanitarian aid agency warned Friday that an Israeli ground invasion of Rafah would put hundreds of thousands of Palestinians "at imminent risk of death."
"Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death" for the approximately 1.5 million Palestinians—including around 1.2 million people forcibly displaced from other areas of the embattled enclave—sheltering in Gaza's southernmost city, U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva on Friday.
"The hundreds of thousands of people who are there would be at imminent risk of death if there is an assault," he added, warning of not only "a slaughter of civilians, but also at the same time an incredible blow to the humanitarian operation in the entire strip, because it is run primarily out of Rafah."
Gaza: “This contingency plan is Band-Aids. It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation.” - Dr Richard Peeperkorn of @WHOoPt
“Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death” - @UNOCHA
. pic.twitter.com/tJHt8dh3D7
— United Nations Geneva (@UNGeneva) May 3, 2024
According to Politico, Israel has shared with the U.S. government its plan to move the civilian population out of Rafah ahead of a looming ground assault the Wall Street Journal reported earlier on Friday could begin next week.
Conditions in Rafah are already dire. The city—which was home to fewer than 300,000 people before the war—is now one of the most densely populated places on the planet. Hundreds of thousands of refugees are crowded together in tents and other makeshift shelters. Water and other necessities are in desperately short supply. According to James Elder, the global spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), there is approximately one toilet for every 850 people in Rafah and one shower for every 3,500 people.
"Try to imagine, as a teenage girl, or elderly man, or pregnant woman, queueing for an entire day just to have a shower," Elder wrote for The Guardian this week.
There are nearly 600,000 children in Rafah, nearly all of whom are "injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized, or living with disabilities," UNICEF executive director Catherine Russell said Wednesday.
The war in Gaza is taking an unimaginable toll on children.
In Rafah, a city of children, the impact of a further escalation would be devastating.
The lives of children must be protected.
All the hostages must be released.
The nightmare for so many families must end. pic.twitter.com/5kOye5VySZ
— Catherine Russell (@unicefchief) May 1, 2024
Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, who represents the U.N. World Health Organization in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories, on Friday called contingency response plans for a Rafah invasion a "Band-Aid" solution.
"It will absolutely not prevent the expected substantial additional mortality and morbidity caused by a military operation," he stressed.
Israel's 210-day assault on Gaza in retaliation for the October 7 attacks has already killed at least 34,622 Palestinians—a large majority of them civilian men, women, and children—while wounding more than 77,800 others, according to Palestinian and international officials. At least 11,000 other Gazans are missing and presumed dead and buried beneath the rubble of the more than 370,000 homes and other buildings destroyed or damaged during the war.
That means around 5% of Gazans have been killed or wounded during Israel's onslaught, the U.N. Development Program and the U.N. Economic Commission for Western Asia said in a report published Wednesday. The agencies called this an "unprecedented" level of casualties in modern warfare and said it would take until at least 2040 to restore all the homes destroyed or damaged during the war.
As many as 90% of Gaza's 2.3 million people have also been forcibly displaced by Israeli forces, who despite a January International Court of Justice (ICJ) order to prevent genocidal acts continue to block adequate humanitarian aid from reaching the starving people of Gaza.
Despite pleas and protestations from world leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to invade Rafah to "eliminate Hamas' battalions there."
Earlier this week, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the "total annihilation" of Gaza, specifically mentioning Rafah. The South Africa-led case against Israel at the ICJ has centered similar statements of intent to destroy Palestinians—which are key to proving the crime of genocide—made by Israeli officials since October.
Meanwhile, Israeli forces have ramped up aerial attacks on Rafah in what is likely preparation for a ground invasion. Palestinian and international media reported Friday that an overnight Israeli airstrike on a home killed at least eight people, mostly children.
"After almost seven months of brutal hostilities that have killed tens of thousands of people and maimed tens of thousands more, Gaza is bracing for even more suffering and misery," U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said earlier this week.
"The world has been appealing to the Israeli authorities for weeks to spare Rafah, but a ground operation there is on the immediate horizon," he continued. "For the hundreds of thousands of people who have fled to Gaza's southernmost point to escape disease, famine, mass graves, and direct fighting, a ground invasion would spell even more trauma and death."
"The simplest truth is that a ground operation in Rafah will be nothing short of a tragedy beyond words," Griffiths added. "No humanitarian plan can counter that. The rest is detail."
U.S. officials have also privately sounded the alarm over the likely consequences of an Israeli invasion of Rafah.
In March, according to a leaked cable obtained by The Intercept, members of the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance at the U.S. Agency for International Development warned the State Department that a Rafah invasion "could result in catastrophic humanitarian consequences, including mass civilian casualties, extensive population displacement, and the collapse of the existing humanitarian response."
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UN Warns of Israeli War Crimes as Rafah Invasion Looms
"To be clear, intensified hostilities in Rafah in this situation could lead to large-scale loss of civilian lives and we must do everything possible within our power to avoid that," an OCHA spokesperson said.
Feb 06, 2024
Any Israeli invasion of Rafah in southern Gaza could lead to "war crimes," a United Nations official warned on Tuesday.
The warning comes as Israel has signaled its intent to move on the city on the Egyptian border, where around half of Gaza's population is now seeking refuge.
"We as the U.N. and member states of the U.N. can bear witness," U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) spokesperson Jens Laerke told reporters in Geneva, according to UN News. "We can make clear what the law says… under international humanitarian law, indiscriminate bombing of densely populated areas may amount to war crimes."
Rafah's population has quintupled since Israel's bombardment of Gaza began on October 7. Since then, Israel's bombing campaign and ground invasion have killed at least 27,585 people and internally displaced around 85% of Gaza's population.
Israel has repeatedly ordered civilians to move south for their safety, and thousands continue to flee to Rafah, including from intense fighting in Khan Younis. Despite this, OCHA said it had observed an "increase in strikes" in Rafah, and Israeli leaders have made statements suggesting a plan to invade Rafah.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Monday that Rafah would be the "next target" of the Israel Defense Forces, according to Al Jazeera.
"To be clear, intensified hostilities in Rafah in this situation could lead to large-scale loss of civilian lives and we must do everything possible within our power to avoid that," Laerke said.
The Israeli public broadcaster KAN said it had been informed by "political sources" that civilians would be evacuated from Rafah before any military campaign, but it is unclear where they would go.
On Monday, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), Al Mezan, and Al-Haq issued a joint statement calling on the international community to prevent an attack on Rafah and said that such an invasion would "significantly exacerbate the ongoing genocidal acts" being carried out by the IDF in Gaza.
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