The Israeli Knesset’s passage last week of a law imposing the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of “terrorism” drew swift and widespread international condemnation. It also triggered a general strike in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, with Palestinians taking to the streets in Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron and elsewhere on 1 April to protest the measure.
Some local shop owners in the occupied East Jerusalem area reported that Israeli forces had forced them to reopen.
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A coalition of eight countries, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Turkey, condemned the law as “discriminatory” and warned that it reinforces the system of apartheid. The EU called it “a step backwards”. At the same time, UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk warned that its application to residents of the occupied Palestinian territory “would constitute a war crime”.
Demonstrations broke out not only in Palestinian cities, but also in Syria, including the cities of Damascus, Hama and Deraa.
The week’s political tensions unfolded against the backdrop of the ongoing siege of Jerusalem’s holy sites. The Al-Aqsa Mosque has been closed to Muslim worshipers for more than a month, with the state of emergency extended until mid-April.
Palestinians in Jerusalem offer Friday prayers on the streets around the Old City as Israeli authorities continue to restrict access to Al-Aqsa, a violation of the sovereignty of the Islamic Waqf at the site under the guardianship of Jordan’s King Abdullah II.
Israel continues to demonstrate its de facto ultimate authority over the site. On Monday evening, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the compound under the protection of Israeli forces.
Restrictions also continued at Christian sites, as Western Christian denominations observed Holy Week. Christianity’s holiest site, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, remained closed to the public throughout Holy Week.
Gaza peace plan has reached an impasse
In Gaza, the past week brought further evidence that the Peace Board’s framework for reconstruction and regime change is far from implementation. According to Reuters news agency, a Hamas delegation informed Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo that the movement would not discuss disarmament unless Israel stops violating the ceasefire agreement and commits to a complete withdrawal from Gaza.
“We will not accept the surrender of weapons under any circumstances. We affirm that what the enemy could not take from us through tanks and destruction will not take it from us through politics or at the negotiating table,” a spokesman for Hamas’ Qassam Brigades said in a statement Sunday.
Meanwhile, funding pledges for Gaza reconstruction from Gulf Arab states have been put on hold as a result of the US-Israel war over Iran.
Israeli airstrikes have increased across the strip over the past week as the implementation of Phase 2 of the October peace plan for Gaza coincides with the implementation of Phase 2 of the October peace plan for Gaza, according to documentary reports published on the Telegram messaging app.
On 31 March, at least six people were killed in attacks across Gaza, including three in Jabaliya and a father and son in Khan Yunis. On 3 April, six civilians were injured in a drone strike near the Abu Shurakh intersection in northern Gaza. On 4 April, a vehicle hit a vehicle near Maghazi camp, killing one person and injuring several others. Israeli forces also attacked a police post in northern Gaza City and continued shelling several areas with artillery.
And since Qassam’s defiant statements, civilian casualties in Gaza have increased rapidly. On the morning of 5 April, three Palestinians were killed and others injured in an airstrike by Israeli forces on al-Shawa Square, east of Gaza City.
Later that day, other people were injured by Israeli military firing in the Mawasi area of ​​Khan Yunis, including a small child who suffered a bloody head injury. A Palestinian man was reportedly shot dead by Israeli soldiers while inspecting his home east of Gaza, following a military attack on a group of civilians near the Al-Jazeera Club in central Gaza City, killing one person and wounding others.
Overall, Gaza’s health ministry reported on Monday morning that seven people were killed and 17 others were injured during the past 24 hours.
Israeli forces reportedly shot and killed another man east of al-Qarara on the morning of 6 April. Later in the afternoon, an airstrike targeting an electric bicycle in Sheikh Radwan killed at least two Palestinians, while others, including a little girl, were seriously injured. And then, according to local reports, in the evening, Israeli forces and allied armed groups opened heavy fire on the Maghazi camp in central Gaza, killing at least 10 and wounding dozens.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, at least 723 Palestinians have been killed and 1,990 wounded in Gaza since the October 11 “cease-fire”, not including several deaths on April 6. Nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the US and Israel started the war on Iran. Additionally, according to the ministry, a civilian was killed in a building collapse, bringing the death toll from building collapses in Gaza to 29.
Meanwhile, the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating as aid entry into the devastated strip is severely restricted by Israel. The Gaza Ministry of Health issued an urgent warning on 2 April that the complete unavailability of fuel on the local market poses a “real risk of death for hundreds of patients in intensive care” and those dependent on neonatal incubators and dialysis units, while supplies of childhood vaccines and blood banks are at risk of depletion. Long queues were photographed outside a single bread distribution point on al-Wehda Street in Gaza City.
The Gaza Center for Human Rights warned this week that about 71,000 tons of unexploded ordnance remained buried across the strip, with seven people, including five children, already killed by unexploded ordnance. More than 1 million people are living in tents or in the open, with the health ministry warning of growing rodent populations and the threat of disease spread, including plague and hantavirus.
Settler attacks and military raids continue across the West Bank
While this week saw a slight decline in the intense intensity of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank that began with the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran on February 28, daily incidents of settler violence, military raids, and movement restrictions continued.
The most serious attack occurred on 4 April, when more than 40 residents – some armed, some on government-supplied Ranger ATVs – attacked Jalud and Qusra villages south of Nablus, attacking homes and residents. According to local people, when the residents attempted to defend themselves, the residents started firing.
Locals say Israeli soldiers reinforced the settlers rather than stopping them. The settlers then burned a field and attacked firefighters who rushed to put out the fire, and severely beat one worker, 32-year-old Zahran Shanbala, until he was unconscious. The attack began from the Jebel Ein Eina checkpoint – the same checkpoint from which residents descended on Qusra on 14 March to kill a resident. The day before, settlers had cut off electricity in the Ras al-Ain area of ​​the village and arrived with clubs when residents went to repair the grid.
Also on 4 April, more than 40 residents attacked Turmus Aya, north of Ramallah, attacking residents, damaging vehicles and partially burning a truck before firing at youths who encountered them.
In Masafar Yatta in the southern West Bank, a pattern of settlers attacking herders and abandoning livestock in crops – after which soldiers detained Palestinians rather than settlers – continued for several days in communities including Wadi Abu Shaban, Rujum Ali and Shaab al-Batim.
In the village of al-Mughayyir, northeast of Ramallah, soldiers were reported to be closing the village entrance on an almost daily basis, beating and robbing residents during searches, and, on one occasion, deploying what local activists described as a nerve agent, causing residents, including elderly people and children, to lose consciousness. The nature of the gas employed remains unconfirmed.
Despite recent claims by the Israeli government of settler violence and renewed efforts to crack down on new settler outposts, particularly in Area B, the part of the West Bank under joint Israeli and Palestinian control, a new illegal settler outpost was established between Taysir and Aqaba, east of Tubas. Another checkpoint was set up on land northwest of Sinjil in Area B, where soldiers have since prevented farmers from accessing their land.
Also this week, the Israeli Civil Administration submitted a planning document it warned the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate is designed to forcibly displace Bedouin communities east of Jerusalem, including Khan al-Ahmar, Abu Nuwar and Arab al-Jahalin, from their pastoral lands to a limited urban settlement. The governorate described the plan as directly linked to the E1 settlement project linking Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem and said it was a “gross violation of international humanitarian law.”
In a separate legal development, an Israeli high court extended the administrative detention of Palestinian activist Rabia Abu Naim by three months – without charge or trial – after an initial six-month period.
