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Escalating Violence in the Occupied West Bank

July 25, 2024

Confrontation between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank has increased dramatically in recent months.

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Fighting Over Land - Escalating Violence in the Occupied West Bank
The West Bank has been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War in 1967 - but part of it has been under Palestinian administration since 1994. Assassinations, Jewish settlements and an Israeli border wall: the area has repeatedly given rise to bloody clashes between Palestinians and Israelis.Image: YLE

This documentary offers an exclusive picture of the now destroyed Bedouin village Wadi al-Siq and the Nur Shams refugee camp.

Since the 7 October 2023 Hamas terror attack, which killed 1,200 people, Israel has been at war with the terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip. Hamas run health authorities in Gaza state tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians have been killed in the fighting. Removed from the main focus of international attention, the situation in the occupied West Bank has also deteriorated significantly.

Fighting Over Land - Escalating Violence in the Occupied West Bank
In the shadow of the war between the terrorist organisation Hamas and Israel, violence is also escalating far away from the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of the attacks by Hamas terrorists on Israel, hundreds of Palestinians have been driven from their homes in the West Bank by radical Israeli settlersImage: YLE

In the last three months of 2023, there were over 530 reported attacks by Israeli settlers on Palestinians in the West Bank. According to Human Rights Watch, the year 2023 witnessed the highest number of such incidents since records began in 2006. UN sources have recorded over 500 killings of Palestinians by Israelis in the occupied territories from 7 October 2023 to late June 2024. During the same period, 12 Israelis were killed by Palestinians in the region.

In the Palestinian refugee camp Nur Shams a father stands among the ruins of what was once his home, destroyed by Israeli security forces during a raid. Israeli authorities describe such actions as defensive and designed to counter the threat posed by suspected Hamas terrorists. The Bedouin village Wadi al-Siq no longer exists - the dwellings here were destroyed by Israeli settlers. As-Sawiya, another village, has also witnessed settler violence - a Palestinian farmer was recently killed.

Fighting Over Land - Escalating Violence in the Occupied West Bank
Rabbi Arik Ascherman defends Palestinians in the occupied West Bank against the actions of the Israeli army and police.Image: YLE

But here families are receiving help, including from Rabbi Arik Ascherman among other Israeli and Palestinian human rights activists. Israeli settlements in the occupied territories are in breach of the UN Charter on human rights, as well as in contravention of UN Security Council resolution 2334 agreed in December 2016. 

Broadcasting Hours: 

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WED 14.08.2024 – 01:15 UTC
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