Israeli NGO warns of “quiet annexation” of West Bank under cover of war

Special Israeli NGO warns of “quiet annexation” of West Bank under cover of war
A Palestinian activist lifts a national flag and flashes the victory sign as Israeli armoured vehicles including a bulldozer drive on a street during a raid in Tulkarem on September 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 27 November 2024
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Israeli NGO warns of “quiet annexation” of West Bank under cover of war

Israeli NGO warns of “quiet annexation” of West Bank under cover of war
  • ACRI accuses Netanyahu govt. of “excessive, unrestrained and illegal use of force” in occupied territory in a new report
  • Says govt. is “implementing profound changes to all aspects of control, most of which are flying under the radar”

LONDON: On Oct. 12 last year, a group of armed settlers and Israeli soldiers drove into the West Bank village of Wadi Al-Seeq, 10 kilometers east of the Palestinian city of Ramallah.

There, they seized and handcuffed three Palestinian men, subjecting them to hours of abuse and violence, later compared by one of the victims to the treatment meted out by rogue US soldiers to prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003.

The abuses in Wadi Al-Seeq were led by members of the IDF’s Sfar Hamidbar (Desert Frontier) unit, notorious for recruiting into its ranks violent “hilltop youth” from the illegal farming settlements that are proliferating in the West Bank with the blessing of Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, which includes, and is dependent on the support of, far-right parties.

“For hours,” as an Israeli newspaper reported on Oct. 21, 2023, the Palestinians “were severely beaten, stripped to their underwear, and photographed handcuffed.

“Their captors urinated on two of them and extinguished burning cigarettes on them. There was even an attempt to penetrate one of them with an object.”




Palestinians bound and stripped after being apprehended by IDF soldiers and settlers in the central West Bank village of Wadi Al-Seeq on October 12, 2023. (The Times of Israel)

Israeli human rights activists who arrived at the scene were also arrested, cuffed, beaten, threatened with death and, like the Palestinians, robbed.

At the time, many in Israel were shocked to read the reports of the joint operation between the IDF and settlers, exposed by the left-wing Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

But as a new report from an Israeli human rights group makes clear, such events have become commonplace as, under cover of the wars in Gaza and Lebanon, the Israeli government and its agencies have been pursuing the ultimate goal of “realizing the vision of full Israeli sovereignty in the occupied territory.”

In the report, “One year of war: the collapse of human and civil rights in Israel and the West Bank,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) accuses the government of “excessive, unrestrained, and illegal use of force.”

Furthermore, it says, Netanyahu’s government is “demolishing the judicial system and the civil service with the aim of accumulating unlimited power; increasing the use of force in the West Bank and granting tacit permission for unrestrained settler violence; using force to limit freedom of expression and protest; and systematically violating the rights of detainees and prisoners.”




Israeli settlers march towards the outpost of Eviatar, near the Palestinian village of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on April 10, 2023. (AFP)

The list of charges levelled against the government is long, including institutionalized discrimination against Arab society, “unprecedented” infringement of the rights of suspects and prisoners, the “mass armament and creation of untrained forces” of settlers, the “destruction of democratic foundations,” attacks on freedom of expression and “normalization of citizen surveillance and disregard for privacy.”

Legislative steps are being taken with the aim of excluding certain parties from running for the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. Last month a controversial bill was passed to change the rules for banning individuals or parties from membership of the Knesset if they have “supported terror,” a definition which now includes visiting the family of someone accused of an act of terrorism.

Likud, Netanyahu’s party, has even accused Arab members of the Knesset of supporting terror simply on the ground of their support for Palestinian statehood.

“Depriving a population of the right to protest politically and the right to political representation” is “a very slippery slope,” said Noa Sattath, the CEO of ACRI.

“When there’s no political representation of a minority, then there's a radicalization of that minority.”

IN NUMBERS

  • 733 Palestinians killed in the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023.
  • 40 Israelis killed during the same period.
  • 3,340 Palestinians in administrative detention as of last June.
  • 11,800 Palestinians arrested since current conflict erupted.

What the ACRI report exposes on a grand scale, says Sattath, is “the excessive use of power. Of course, we see it in Gaza, and in Lebanon now, but we also see it in the West Bank.

“We also see it being used against Israeli protesters. We’re also seeing it in the treatment of prisoners. In all walks of life, basically, the Israeli government has moved to using excessive power against the different players, rather than making more complicated decisions.”

The headline scandal of the past year is what ACRI describes as “the quiet coup” in the West Bank.

“With public attention focused elsewhere,” says the report, “the government is implementing profound changes to all aspects of control in the West Bank, most of which are flying under the radar.

“In the last two years, the government has made giant strides in advancing policies aimed at accelerating the annexation process of the West Bank, while establishing Jewish supremacy and marginalizing the Palestinian population, all in pursuit of realizing the vision of full Israeli sovereignty in the occupied territory.”




A member of the Israeli security forces walks past a bulldozer demolishing a house belonging to Palestinians in the southern area of the occupied West Bank on November 6, 2024. (AFP)

The annexation of the West Bank has long been on the agenda, said Sattath, “but the war has given cover and enabled this to happen.

“Basically, they’re creating a new reality on the ground, behind the scenes, without a lot of public scrutiny, without a lot of international discourse on this new reality that they’re manufacturing.”

The Israeli government has, in certain instances, issued statements that aim to distance itself from the violent actions of settlers in the West Bank. Netanyahu has occasionally called for calm and condemned settler attacks on Palestinians, especially after high-profile incidents.

However, ACRI fears that under the incoming US administration of Donald Trump, whose election has been welcomed so enthusiastically by far-right members of Netanyahu’s cabinet, things are only going to get worse.




A member of the Israeli security forces scuffles with a protestor as Palestinian and Israeli peace activists demonstrate at the entrance of Huwara in the occupied West Bank, on March 3, 2023. (AFP)

“I think that the next years are going to be very difficult,” said Sattath.

“The US government is one of the only checks and balances on the behavior of the Israeli government behavior and, even if we would have liked them to be more forceful in the way that they do it, we're very worried that the disappearance of that will have grave implications for the lives of Palestinians, both in Gaza, where the US is currently so involved in the humanitarian aid efforts there, and in the West Bank.”

Disturbingly, she says, Israel is manoeuvring behind the scenes to end the status of the West Bank as an occupied territory under military occupation, which is how it has been defined by international law since the occupation of the West Bank by Israel in 1967.




A picture shows burnt cars, which were set ablaze by Israeli settlers, in the area of in Al-Lubban Al-Sharqiya in the occupied West Bank on June 21, 2023. (AFP)

“It seems a little strange that an organization like ACRI would be advocating for military occupation,” she said. 

“But under international conventions military occupation gives the protected citizens of that area many different rights and gives the occupiers obligations. 

“Residents in occupied territories cannot be moved. You cannot build on their territory and the occupying force has all sorts of obligations toward them, in terms of humanitarian aid. 

“Now, what the settler movement, through its ministers in the government, is trying to do is erase the military occupation, replacing it with government agencies and officials to facilitate the settlement enterprise.” 




A Palestinian man walks at the village of Khallet Al-Daba, in the occupied West Bank on October 26, 2023, after it was attacked by Israeli settlers. (AFP)

The process began in February 2023 when, despite disquiet among some members of Netanyahu’s government, authority over many civilian issues in the West Bank was stripped from Defense Ministry agency COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories) and transferred to Bezalel Smotrich, the religious Zionism leader and finance minister. 

According to a Times of Israel report, the agreement “appears to give the ultranationalist leader sweeping powers over the territory, and allows him to advance his goal of thwarting Palestinian aspirations for a state in the West Bank by enabling the Israeli population there to substantially expand.”

Anti-settlement organizations denounced the agreement, with one, Breaking the Silence, saying it amounted to “legal, de jure annexation,” of the West Bank.

The importance of ACRI’s report, says Sattath, lies in the sheer breadth of abuses by the Israeli government it exposes.




Israeli security forces fire tear gas at Palestinians demonstrating in the village of Beita, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, on April 10, 2023. (AFP)

ACRI, founded in 1972 and the oldest civil and human rights organization in Israel, has been publishing reports on the state of human rights in Israel and the West Bank for decades. But, she says, “we have never published a report showing such a severe and comprehensive deterioration as we have seen over the past year.”

ACRI says it hopes its report “will deepen the public’s understanding of the damage being done to human rights and democratic institutions, and that it will stir the public to action and resistance.”

It added: “Monitoring human rights violation processes is also critical for there to be any hope of correction under a different government and reality.”

 


Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara

Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara
Updated 4 sec ago
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Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara

Syrian and Turkish interior ministers discuss security cooperation in Ankara
  • Khattab called for continued cooperation to ensure safe return for Syrians who sought refuge during civil war

LONDON: Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab discussed various topics with his Turkish counterpart, Ali Yerlikaya, during his official visit to Ankara this week.

The two ministers explored ways to strengthen security cooperation and coordination, in addition to supporting and developing Syrian security institutions.

Khattab highlighted the status of Syrian nationals who sought refuge in Turkiye during the civil war, calling for continued cooperation with Ankara to ensure their safe return home, the SANA agency reported.

Yerlikaya wrote on X that his meeting with Khattab focused on providing essential support to the security and related units of the Syrian Interior Ministry.

“(We discussed) sharing experience and providing an intensive training program and cooperating on the return of Syrians under temporary protection in our country,” he said.

“Strengthening security in Syria is vital for the consolidation of internal peace, economic development and social welfare,” he added, affirming Turkiye’s support of Syria’s stability.


Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border

Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border
Updated 05 August 2025
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Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border

Jordan seizes 2 drug-laden drones on western border
  • Border Guards detected, neutralized both drones within Jordanian territory
  • More than 300 drones have been intercepted this year

LONDON: Jordanian border and anti-narcotics authorities intercepted two drug-laden drones on Tuesday.

The General Command of the Jordan Armed Forces said that the Southern Military Region, in coordination with Military Security and the Anti-Narcotics Department, intercepted the drones along the western border.

Border Guard units detected and neutralized both drones within Jordanian territory, with the seized drugs handed over to the relevant authorities for investigation, it added.

The Jordanian Armed Forces have intercepted 310 drug-laden drones and thwarted multiple smuggling attempts from January to mid-July, seizing more than 14.1 million narcotic pills, 92.1 kg of illegal drugs and more than 10,600 slabs of hashish, with a street value amounting to tens of millions of US dollars.

General Command said that Jordan will combat infiltration and smuggling decisively, quashing any threat to national security.


Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
Updated 05 August 2025
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Gaza civil defense says Israeli attacks kill 26

Mourners carry the body of one of the victims killed during overnight Israeli bombardment on a camp sheltering displaced people.
  • Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal said eight people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near Khan Yunis
  • Six more people were killed, 21 injured by Israeli fire in central Gaza while waiting for food near a distribution center

GAZA CITY: Gaza’s civil defense agency said 26 people were killed by Israeli gunfire and air strikes on Tuesday, including 14 who were waiting near an aid distribution site inside the Palestinian territory.

Civil defense spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that eight people were killed by Israeli gunfire while waiting for aid near the south Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

Six more people were killed and 21 injured by Israeli fire in central Gaza while waiting for food near a distribution center, according to Bassal.

The Israeli army told AFP it was looking into the incidents.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defense agency and other parties.

Thousands of Gazans gather daily near food distribution points across Gaza, including four belonging to the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.

Its operations have been marred by chaotic scenes and near-daily reports of Israeli forces firing on those waiting to collect rations.

Israeli restrictions on the entry of goods and aid into Gaza since the start of the war nearly 22 months ago have led to shortages of food and essential goods, including medicine, medical supplies and fuel, which hospitals rely on to power their generators.

Bassal said that five people were killed by a nightly air strike on a tent in Al-Mawasi in south Gaza, an area Israeli authorities designated as a safe zone early on in the war.

“It’s said to be a green zone and it’s safe, but it’s not. They also say that the aid (distribution) is safe, but people die while obtaining aid,” said Adham Younes, who lost a relative in the strike.

“There’s no safety within the Gaza Strip, everyone is exposed to death, everyone is subject to injury,” the 30-year-old told AFP.

Mahmud Younes, another Gazan who said he witnessed the strike, said: ““We found women screaming — they were covered in blood. The entire family has been injured.”

Bassal of the civil defense agency said that six more people were killed in a strike near Gaza City, and one in a strike near the southern city of Khan Yunis.

The Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing and the largest armed force in Gaza, said in a statement Tuesday that they had bombarded an Israeli command-and-control center in south Gaza’s Morag Axis, an Israeli-controlled corridor.


Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure

Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure
Updated 05 August 2025
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Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure

Lebanon’s cabinet meets to discuss Hezbollah’s arms after US pressure
  • The session scheduled for 3:00 p.m. at Lebanon’s presidential palace is the first time that cabinet will discuss the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons
  • Pressure from the US and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals for the group to relinquish its arms has spiked following last year’s war with Israel

BEIRUT: Lebanon’s cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss Hezbollah’s arsenal, after Washington ramped up pressure on ministers to publicly commit to disarming the Iran-backed group and amid fears Israel could intensify strikes if they fail to do so.

The session scheduled for 3:00 p.m. (1200 GMT) at Lebanon’s presidential palace is the first time that cabinet will discuss the fate of Hezbollah’s weapons — unimaginable when the group was at the zenith of its power just two years ago.

Pressure from the US and Hezbollah’s domestic rivals for the group to relinquish its arms has spiked following last year’s war with Israel, which killed Hezbollah’s top leaders and thousands of fighters and destroyed much of its rocket arsenal.

In June, US envoy Thomas Barrack proposed a roadmap to Lebanese officials to fully disarm Hezbollah, in exchange for Israel halting its strikes on Lebanon and withdrawing its troops from five points they still occupy in southern Lebanon.

That proposal included a condition that Lebanon’s government pass a cabinet decision clearly pledging to disarm Hezbollah.

After Barrack made several trips to Lebanon to urge progress on the plan, Washington’s patience began wearing thin, Reuters reported last week. It pressured Lebanon’s ministers to swiftly make the public pledge so that talks could continue.

But Lebanese officials and diplomats say such an explicit vow could spark communal tensions in Lebanon, where Hezbollah and its arsenal retain significant support among the country’s Shiite Muslim community.

PROPOSED WORDING

On Monday evening, a group of dozens of motorcycles set out from a neighborhood in Beirut’s suburbs where Hezbollah has strong support, carrying the party’s flags.

Hezbollah’s main ally, Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, has been in talks with President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam ahead of Tuesday’s session to agree on a general phrase to include in a cabinet decision to appease the US and buy Lebanon more time, two Lebanese officials said.

Berri’s proposed wording would commit Lebanon to forming a national defense strategy and maintaining a ceasefire with Israel, but would avoid an explicit pledge to disarm Hezbollah across Lebanon, the officials said.

But other Lebanese ministers plan to propose a formulation that commits Lebanon to a deadline to disarm Hezbollah, said Kamal Shehadi, a minister affiliated with the anti-Hezbollah Lebanese Forces party.

“There’s frankly no need to kick the can down the road and postpone a decision. We have to put Lebanon’s interest first and take a decision today,” Shehadi told Reuters.

Lebanese officials and foreign envoys say Lebanese leaders fear that a failure to issue a clear decision on Tuesday could prompt Israel to escalate its strikes, including on Beirut.

A US-brokered ceasefire last November ended the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, though Israel has continued to carry out strikes on what it says are Hezbollah arms depots and fighters, mostly in southern Lebanon.


Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP
Updated 05 August 2025
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Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP

Thousands in besieged Sudan city at ‘risk of starvation’: WFP
  • “Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Perdison of WFP
  • “Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost“

PORT SUDAN: Thousands of families trapped in a besieged city in war-torn Sudan’s west are at “risk of starvation,” the World Food Programme warned on Tuesday.

Since May last year, El-Fasher, the state capital of North Darfur, has been under siege by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), who have been at war with the army since April 2023.

The RSF has encircled the city, blocking all major roads and trapping hundreds of thousands of civilians with dwindling food supplies and limited humanitarian access.

“Everyone in El-Fasher is facing a daily struggle to survive,” said Eric Perdison, the WFP’s regional director for eastern and southern Africa.

“People’s coping mechanisms have been completely exhausted by over two years of war. Without immediate and sustained access, lives will be lost.”

El-Fasher is the last major city in Darfur still held by the army, and has come under renewed attack by RSF fighters this year since the paramilitaries withdrew from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.

A major RSF assault on the Zamzam displacement camp near El-Fasher in April forced hundreds of thousands of civilians to flee, with many seeking shelter in the city.

According to the WFP, prices for staple foods like sorghum and wheat — used to make traditional flatbreads and porridge — are as much as 460 percent higher in El-Fasher than in other parts of Sudan.

Markets and clinics have been attacked, while community kitchens that once fed displaced families have largely shut down due to a lack of supplies, the UN agency added.

Desperate families are reportedly surviving on animal fodder and food waste, while acute malnutrition is soaring, especially among children.

According to the UN, nearly 40 percent of children under five in El-Fasher are now acutely malnourished, with 11 percent suffering from severe acute malnutrition.

The rainy season, which peaks in August, is further hampering efforts to reach the city, with roads rapidly deteriorating.

Last year, famine was first declared in Zamzam, later spreading to two other nearby camps — Al-Salam and Abu Shouk — and some parts of Sudan’s south, according to the UN.

The war, now in its third year, has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created what the UN describes as the world’s largest displacement and hunger crises.

The country is effectively split in two, with the army controlling the north, east and center of Sudan and the RSF dominating nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.