Israel kills eight more Palestinians in West Bank
Israel cannot stop its killing machine in the Palestinian territories, whether in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip. According to Palestinian health officials on Sunday, Israeli forces claimed the lives of at least eight Palestinians in the West Bank in a 24-hour period.
The killings came as the regime agreed a four-day truce with the Hamas resistance group in the Gaza Strip.
Violence in the West Bank has surged in the weeks since Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7. Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians and arrested hundreds in the West Bank. Israeli settlers have also stepped up attacks.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said that five Palestinians were killed in Jenin, while three others were killed in separate areas of the West Bank since Saturday morning. One of those killed, in Al-Bireh in the central West Bank, was a teenager, the ministry said.
The intensified violence in the territory follows more than a year of escalating raids and arrests in the West Bank and deadly Palestinian attacks on Israelis. Before the Hamas assault, 2023 was already the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank in over two decades.
Israel and Hamas have briefly ceased fire to allow for more aid to enter Gaza and permit the release of captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
The Israeli Army claimed that fourteen Israeli captives and three foreign nationals were handed over to the Red Cross in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Earlier in the day, Egypt said it received the list of 13 Israeli captives who were due to be freed on Sunday in exchange for the release of 39 Palestinian prisoners on the third day of the truce, following two earlier exchanges.
Egypt also said it received positive feedback from both sides about the idea of extending the truce for a day or two and releasing more hostages and prisoners. US President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that “the chances are real” for extending the truce.
Meanwhile, Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi called for “a permanent cease-fire and a complete end to this aggression.”
But Israeli Armed Forces chief, Herzi Halevi, said Saturday that “immediately at the end of the cease-fire” the war would continue.
Aid trucks enter Gaza
The pause in fighting has allowed more aid to reach Palestinians struggling to survive with shortages of water and other essentials. Israel had placed Gaza under a near-total siege.
A total of 61 trucks delivered food, water and medical supplies to northern Gaza on Saturday, the United Nations office for humanitarian affairs said.
Another 187 trucks of vital supplies bound for aid organizations also crossed into the Gaza Strip, it said.
The UN estimates that 1.7 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the fighting.
New tanker seized
Anti-Israel sentiment has been on the rise in the region, which has led to measures against the regime. On Sunday, a tanker linked to an Israel-affiliated company was seized off the coast of Yemen by unidentified armed individuals, a US defense official confirmed, following a series of incidents on the same shipping route. Declaring itself as part of the “axis of resistance,” Yemen has launched a series of drone and missile strikes targeting Israel since October. Sunday’s incident came a week after Yemen seized an Israel-linked cargo ship in the southern Red Sea.
Protests against Israel’s crimes in Gaza still continue across the world. On Saturday, thousands of protesters carried placards, waved Palestinian flags and chanted slogans before Canada’s Parliament in Ottawa, demanding a permanent cease-fire.
“A pause is not enough,” said Yara Shoufani, a protest organizer, adding that “thousands of Palestinians have been killed and Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed.”