19 homes demolished, 216 Palestinians arrested

The situation in Gaza now

Jeddah, 18-02-2025: In only one week: Israel has intensified its settlement activity in the West Bank

The Israeli occupation forces have intensified their expansionist plans in the West Bank through a clear increase in decisions to confiscate Palestinian lands, along with an increase in settlement activities in the West Bank.

Accordingly, the OIC Media Observatory for Israeli Crimes against Palestinians recorded, during the period 11-17 February 2025, five decisions to confiscate an area of 17,868 dunums from the areas of Al-Hadidiya, Al-Mufiyya, Al-Buqai’a, Umm Ashish, and Al-Far’avillage in Tubas, along with the villages of Kafr Malik and Deir Jarir in Ramallah, the town of Deir Ballut and the village of Al-Luban Al-Gharbi in Salfit, allocating them as pastoral areas to settlers. The number of settlement activities reached 10, during which settlers and occupation forces bulldozed Palestinian agricultural lands to expand and pave roads in the village of Rojib, the Za’tara Junction checkpoint in Nablus, and the village of Yasuf in Salfit, in addition to paving a 3-kilometer-long settlement road and placing a barbed wire fence around several thousand meters of other land that was cultivated in an attempt to seize it in the villages of Tubas. 

The occupation forces began building a new settlement in Bethlehem and the village of Shuqba, while the Israeli extremist Itamar Ben Gvir and a group of settlers attacked Palestinian lands in the villages of Bethlehem, during which they planted olive trees in preparation for seizing those lands. The settlers repeated the same activity in the town of Yatta in Al-Khalil on two different occasions over the past seven days. 

In the same context, the number of attacks launched by settlers on towns and villages in the West Bank amounted to 36 attacks, during which they set fire to agricultural lands and tents in the village of Burin, the town of Yatta, and in Jericho. They also stole 50 sheep in the town of Aqraba in Nablus and killed 25 others by poisoning the lands in Bani Naim in Al-Khalil. Over the past period, the settlers carried out attacks, beatings, vandalism, smashing and burning vehicle windows, and closing roads. These crimes come at a time when Israel, the occupying power, killed 19 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip between February 11 and 17, 2025, where teams recovered the bodies of 64 Palestinians from under the rubble as a result of the Israeli aggression that partially stopped on January 18, 2025. The occupation forces wounded 97 Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and arrested 216 others in the cities and villages of the West Bank.

According to the OIC’s observatory, the number of Palestinian martyrs from October 7, 2023, until February 17, 2025, amounted to 49,270 and the wounded 118,490.

The occupation forces demolished 16 homes in the villages and cities of the West Bank and Al-Quds, bombed and burned three vehicles and a poultry farm in Jenin, bulldozed a street and parts of the infrastructure in the Nour Shams camp in Tulkarm, and bulldozed an area of land in the village of Safa in Ramallah. They equally bulldozed an agricultural land of about 400 square meters after destroying the surrounding retaining wall in the village of Al-Funduqin Qalqilya. They also demolished 3 caves, a water collection tank, electricity and water networks, and two agricultural rooms. They bulldozed trees and crops surrounding the houses, uprooted 10 trees around the building, destroyed agricultural crops, smashed solar panels, uprooted crops and fruit trees, and destroyed nurseries over an area of 1000 meters. They also ruined 200 kilograms of dried yogurt in various areas around the town of Yatta.

In terms of attacks on mosques, the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque was subjected to daily raids, and the occupation forces closed the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City of Al-Khalil, after expelling the director of the sanctuary from inside, preventing Palestinians from entering it. 

In the context of their crimes, which amounted to 1371 crimes in one week, the occupation forces raided the health clinic of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees UNRWA in Al-Arroub camp, broke its doors and contents, and turned it into a field investigation center. It also stormed the Al-Tur neighborhood school in occupied Jerusalem, confiscated its books, and imposed the Israeli curriculum on it. 

Regarding the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, only 30% of the aid convoys stipulated in the ceasefire agreement have entered so far, while hospitals are facing a deficit due to a lack of oxygen and medical sources in the Gaza Strip confirmed that 40% of kidney dialysis patients have died due to lack of medical supplies. – OIC News