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Netanyahu’s War on Humanity: Ethnically Cleansing the Palestinian West Bank

These are not acts of thoughtful, spiritual Jews. Rather, they are acts of mean-spirited, violent people using a mythical interpretation of Judaic history as a cover for their cruelty, and calling it Zionism.

June 29, 2026, H. Scott Prosterman Informed Comment, https://scheerpost.com/2026/06/29/netanyahus-war-on-humanity-ethnically-cleansing-the-palestinian-west-bank/

Since October 7, 18 new settlements and eight new army bases have been constructed on what was Palestinian family homes for generations. When Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu’s latest government took power in 2022, it accelerated a far-right campaign to ethnically cleanse the northern areas of the West Bank. The first step was to balkanize the formal Palestinian holdings in the 1994 Oslo Accords. That was augmented by roadblocks and IDF outposts. Now, a settler project decades in the making is taking root in the northern West Bank, as the IDF turns a blind eye to the flagrant violations of human rights and international law.

Netanyahu at the least ignored intelligence warnings about the Gaza buildup to October 7, 2023, because of his dedication to splitting the Palestinians by propping up Hamas in Gaza. October 7 prompted the Likud and IDF to treat the West Bank as a war front with tanks and armed drones. Avi Bluth, the Israeli Central Command chief is directing this atrocity in collaboration with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Defense Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The grand design is to blow up the Oslo Accords, and ethnically cleanse the West Bank one sector at a time, in preparation for annexation. A collateral casualty of October 7 was the 2023 repeal of the Disengagement Law, and the provocative reintroduction of settlements into populated Palestinian areas. And they’re being repopulated and expanded at warp speed to create new, intractable “facts on the ground.” The Homesh and Sa-Nur settlements have already been repopulated. Others are on track for quick restoration.

Since the 2005 when Israel relinquished four isolated settlements in the area in an effort to consolidate Jewish demographics, the Likud government has aimed to reclaim that land. The occupation on steroids has claimed 18 new sites that further disrups what remains of the land where 720,000 Palestinians live. Israel has prosecuted a brutal campaign of intimidation and expropriation against the native Palestinians since October 7; accompanied by new military outposts to protect the new settlements and new roads on stolen land. That includes 14 new settlements, which encircle ancient towns and villages such as Jenin and Tulkarm, where no Israelis have ever lived in modern times.

Though Area A of the West Bank is off limits to Israelis under the Oslo agreement, the settlers backed by Likud and the IDF are building new structures faster than ever. One village targeted is Beit Imrin, where a settler was killed last May in an ATV accident of his own making, but was declared a Palestinian terrorist incident by the IDF and police. The village has since been sacked in various settler raids. That also prompted a violent pogrom in 20 more Palestinian towns, burning cars and homes including with people inside.

The website +972 has chronicled these events since 2021, before the current Likud government took hold. This includes the incidents at the Masafer Yatta village, which was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary, No Other Land. Not surprisingly, the uber-Zionist propaganda machine has gone into overdrive in attempt to discredit the film by Likud in Israel, and Republicans in the US. The Siamese twin criminal alliance between Netanyahu and convicted felon Donald Trump has been analyzed in these pages numerous times since 2019.

B’Tselem is the Israeli information center dedicated to human rights in the West Bank. It advocates for “human rights, liberty and equality” guarantees for Jews, Palestinians, and all people “living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” It also facilitates legal counsel for people ensnared by the Likud-IDF pogrom machine, and whatever protections can still be affected. They noted on “X” this week that, “Since October 2023, settler violence and military raids have forcibly displaced at least 4,635 Palestinians in the West Bank. Entire communities have been driven out of their homes in 62 cases, with another 15 communities partially displaced.”

These are pogroms, the same dynamic used to drive Jews from their homes in the Pale of Settlement and other parts of Europe since the Crusades. It’s tragic and maddening that Israel under Likud has resorted to the same brutality, which ultimately led to the creation of Israel as a safe haven for Jews. And all with the blessing of the Republican Party and US Ambassador Mike Huckabee. Prof. Juan Cole pointed out that, “Ultimately, the government of Benjamin Netanyahu wants to ethnically cleanse all Palestinians, including the Christians.” That doesn’t sit well with Huckabee and his fellow Christian Nationalists, who have been promoting the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Gaza for Christian settlements, leading to fissures in the Likud-US Evangelical alliance. But that alliance is predicated upon the myth that the Palestinian people don’t warrant recognition as an ethnic group with valid claims to their historic homeland.

The area between Nablus and Jenin has been targeted for new settlements and IDF bases because it is the largest, contiguous area of Palestinian territory remaining. Residents of the Homesh and Yuval settlements candidly say their goal is to break it up. Lost on the settlers and the government is the enormous costs involved in securing the area for settlement expansion. This adds to the financial and security burden of a military already stretched thin among operations in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Gaza; and was done without any input or assessment from the Israeli Central Command. This campaign has brought horrors to the daily lives of Palestinians in the form of settler and military raids, roadblocks, restricted access to their own land, uprooting trees and destroying infrastructure, as depicted in the film No Other Land. One especially grotesque act was done by the settlers of Sa-Nur, when they ordered residents of Asasa to dig up a fresh grave of an elderly man and move him soon after he was buried.

The Palestinian refugee crisis was dramatically escalated recently, when the IDF dismantled the refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams. That involved bulldozing homes and infrastructure, where refugees from the 1947 Nakba have been living since 1953, and resulted in 32,000 Palestinians being displaced from their homes – the largest displacement since 1967. The IDF then bi-sected the Jenin camp with a new military road wide enough for two tanks to escalate the intimidation and inconvenience.

Haaretz reports that, “Most movement restrictions currently imposed on Palestinians in the West Bank are being carried out without required legal approvals, violating IDF protocols.” The IDF is breaching its own codes to meet with the Likud political agenda. IDF legal adviser Cobi Marcus addressed that in a letter to Commander Bluth, describing it as “anarchy,” and an ongoing pattern. But this has been going on since 1967, and escalating dramatically in recent years, as noted in Red Pepper Media: “Between 1967 and 2022, Israeli settlers stole roughly seven per cent of all the land in the West Bank. From 2022 to 2024, they doubled that to 14 per cent, stealing as much land in two years as over the previous 55. Activists on the ground estimate the number has likely tripled by 2026.” This has disrupted farming and grazing practices, and brought greater costs for Palestinian farmers and shepherds.

An ongoing characteristic of Israeli actions in Gaza and the West Bank is the targeting of civilians area for punishment, rather than just military targets. Destruction of civilian infrastructure has been a violation of International Law since the 1949 Geneva Convention, but Israel acts as if they have some exemption. Israel targets civilians because, “they assume that Palestinian children will grow up to be terrorists,” as writer Hugh Curran noted. Recent airstrikes in Lebanon have killed 3,800 people and wounded over 11,000. The IDF has also destroyed 17 Lebanese hospitals and bombed 68 more, along with 100 schools, according to the World Health Organization.

These are not acts of thoughtful, spiritual Jews. Rather, they are acts of mean-spirited, violent people using a mythical interpretation of Judaic history as a cover for their cruelty, and calling it Zionism. The pervasiveness and embrace of this pathology has prompted many Jews to divorce their Judaism from Zionism. This form of Zionism supports of a corrupt prime minister, whose government depends on the inclusion of a criminal sector to maintain power and standing. There’s nothing spiritual or righteous about that.

H. Scott Prosterman is a writer and communications consultant in the San Francisco Bay Area, and holds an M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan

July 2, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

UN report finds Israel deliberately targets Palestinian children

by Stephanie Tran | Jun 23, 2026, https://michaelwest.com.au/un-report-finds-israel-deliberately-targets-palestinian-children/

A UN Commission of Inquiry has found Israeli forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, their actions amounting to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza. Stephanie Tran reports.

In a report released today, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel found that Palestinian children had been subjected to targeted killing, starvation, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary detention and repeated displacement.

The Commission found that “much of the harm suffered by Palestinian children was not incidental but

“intended to destroy the existence of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group.”

It said the “sheer number” of cases it investigated showing children were directly targeted by Israeli forces constituted “a key element” in demonstrating genocidal intent from Israeli authorities.

Last year, the Commission found that Israel had committed genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

The report also makes reference to its 2024 findings on “violations and abuses against Israeli children committed by the military wing of Hamas”. It found that “Israeli children were subjected to physical and emotional mistreatment on 7 October 2023.” 40 children were killed in the attack and hundreds injured, with many children losing one or both parents.

“Many children witnessed the killings of their parents and siblings and were also filmed for propaganda purposes by Palestinian armed groups.”

‘Children deliberately targeted’

The Commission found that Israeli security forces have directly targeted Palestinian children with the intention to kill them.

“Israeli security forces have consistently, directly and intentionally targeted individual children across Gaza during evacuations, in shelters and designated safe zones, at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and after the ceasefire agreement in and around the so-called ‘yellow line’.”

The report found that children had been targeted “from newborns to adolescents” and that in some cases children were shot while holding white flags.

The Commission said evidence including precision gunfire, injury patterns and the use of sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters capable of visually identifying targets indicated deliberate targeting.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza, representing 30% of the total deaths.

Speaking to MWM, Commissioner Chris Sidoti said the documented deaths represented only a portion of children killed during the genocide.

“We have seen over 20,000 children killed directly as a result of the violence,” he said.

“Israeli security forces have consistently, directly and intentionally targeted individual children across Gaza during evacuations, in shelters and designated safe zones, at Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution sites and after the ceasefire agreement in and around the so-called ‘yellow line’.”

“That does not include children who have not been identified, those who are buried under the rubble, those whose bodies have not been identified, those who have simply disappeared and are counted as missing.”

Sidoti said the figures also excluded children who had died from disease, starvation and the collapse of Gaza’s healthcare system.

“There are tens of thousands more children who have died as a consequence of this fighting,” he said.

He said some children had been deliberately targeted by snipers and drones.

“We know of snipers and of quadcopters that have killed children, deliberately targeting the children, not killing anybody else around them.”

The report found that children had been targeted “from newborns to adolescents” and that in some cases children were shot while holding white flags.

The Commission said evidence including precision gunfire, injury patterns and the use of sniper rifles, drones and quadcopters capable of visually identifying targets indicated deliberate targeting.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 20,000 children have been killed in Gaza, representing 30% of the total deaths.

Speaking to MWM, Commissioner Chris Sidoti said the documented deaths represented only a portion of children killed during the genocide.

Sexual violence against children

The Commission found that sexual and gender-based violence was being used “in the context of detention and arrests as a method of warfare and intimidation against Palestinian children”.

“Sexual violence against Palestinian children in Israeli detention is not exceptional but a systematic, state-enabled assault on their bodies and their dignity and deliberately meted out to cause humiliation,” the report states.

The Commission documented cases of forced public nudity, sexual assault, genital violence and sexual threats against children in detention.

Sidoti said some forms of abuse amounted to torture.

“Sexual violence itself is common, but it is not always used for the purposes of torture,” he said.

“A part of the sexual violence that we saw involved the stripping of children in public, their humiliation, and what, under Australian law and international law, constitutes child abuse.”

The Commission concluded that sexual violence against Palestinian children constituted both war crimes and crimes against humanity.

It further found that sexual violence “constitutes part of the genocidal act of causing serious bodily and mental harm.” 

“Such deliberate violence was intended not only to cause immediate and long-term harm to the individual children, but

“to target and destroy the Palestinian group in Gaza, because children embody the group’s biological continuity and collective survival.”

Deliberate starvation and healthcare destruction

The Commission concluded that Israel had committed the war crime of wilful killing and the crime against humanity of extermination by intentionally using starvation as a method of warfare and depriving children of essential medical care.

The report found that Israel has “intentionally inflicted these conditions of life, in particular on Palestinian infants, children and young persons in Gaza”.

Attacks on hospitals, neonatal wards and maternity services, combined with shortages of fuel, medicine and medical equipment, have caused the deaths of newborns and seriously harmed pregnant women and infants.

Sidoti said the findings reinforced the Commission’s previous conclusions that Israeli actions in Gaza amounted to genocide.

“Our findings in relation to children confirmed those findings,” he told MWM.

He pointed to attacks on hospitals, neonatal and paediatric services and the destruction of medical equipment.

“All of these things indicate an intent that children should die, and that means for us reinforcement of our findings in relation to genocide“

Destruction of schools

The Commission concluded “Israeli security forces have intentionally directed attacks against educational facilities, resulting in the denial of Palestinian children’s right to education for present and future generations.”

More than 97% of schools in Gaza had been damaged or destroyed.

“The destruction of the education system has been an attack on the hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people as a whole,” the report states.

The Commission found that the collapse of education and healthcare systems had caused

“Irreversible learning loss, neural developmental delays and diminished future opportunities.“

The report also documents Israeli soldiers filming themselves destroying children’s toys, playground equipment and personal belongings.

“The confidence of the Israeli soldiers to film themselves in this manner and post the evidence online is a clear reflection of the lack of accountability,” the report states.

Detention, torture and abuse

The Commission found that Palestinian children held by Israeli authorities had experienced prolonged blindfolding, forced stripping, severe beatings, deprivation of food and water, sleep deprivation and denial of medical treatment.

It found a pattern of “severe and deliberate mistreatment” particularly affecting Palestinian boys.

Children were subjected to prolonged kneeling on hard surfaces, attacks targeting their heads, faces and genitals, threats involving dogs and detention alongside adult prisoners.

The Commission concluded that the treatment of detained children constituted the crimes against humanity of torture and other inhumane acts causing serious suffering.

Sidoti said the number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities remained unclear.

Sidoti said the number of Palestinian children detained by Israeli authorities remained unclear.

West Bank settler violence and killings

The Commission also examined Israeli military operations and settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

It found evidence that Palestinian children had been deliberately shot, denied medical treatment and subjected to violence by settlers.

“The Commission has identified a pattern of targeting of Palestinian children in the West Bank, mirroring Israeli practices in Gaza including deliberate shooting of children, particularly of boys. Israeli soldiers target boys, labelled as “terrorists”, on the basis of their male and Palestinian identity, with lethal force.”

The report describes cases in which wounded children were left bleeding while soldiers prevented ambulances from reaching them.

The Commission concluded that Israeli authorities had failed to protect Palestinian children from settler violence.

It concluded that settler violence functioned

“not as a deviation from state policy but as a means of implementing it”

“Both the State of Israel and violent settler groups share and collaborate in the same strategic objectives: the entrenchment of Israeli settlement on Palestinian land, annexation of Palestinian territory and the displacement of Palestinian people from their land.”

Chain of command and accountability

Sidoti said the Commission had found responsibility extended beyond individual soldiers.

“We have made that finding that there is a clear chain of command and it does go right to the top,” he said.

“It is not just individual soldiers who are responsible for individual war crimes. …  There is a chain of command that means that those at the top have issued clear orders as to the nature of this campaign, the objectives the military are to achieve.”

“Our conclusion on the basis of the evidence that we collected is that that constitutes a genocidal purpose.”

Sidoti said growing international attention had shifted from expressions of concern to discussions about concrete measures by individual states.

“The responsibilities under international law now fall on individual governments and groups of governments to decide what action to take and take it.”

He said governments, including Australia, should consider measures directed not only at individuals but also at institutions.

“We need to address questions of institutions now, and not just individuals who are committing war crimes. That means the Israeli Defense Forces as an institution, the Israeli government as an institution, and the settlements themselves, right across the West Bank, as organized violators of international law” he said.

Israel declines to respond

Sidoti said Israeli authorities had been provided with a draft copy of the report before publication.

“Our procedures require that we give all of our reports to the Israeli authorities in draft form before they’re finalised,” he said.

“The Israeli authorities had a draft of this report two or three weeks ago, and they had an opportunity to comment to us.”

According to Sidoti, Israeli authorities did not provide formal comments to the Commission.

“They did not do so, but instead … they prepared an 18-page rebuttal which they distributed to some diplomatic missions here in Geneva.”

The Commission called on states to ensure accountability for crimes committed against Palestinian children and urged the international community to “employ all means reasonably available to them to prevent the commission of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity”.

MWM asked Foreign Minister Penny Wong, and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade whether Australia intends to take any action in response to the Commission’s findings.

They have not provided a response.

The Commission of Inquiry on OPT, including East Jerusalem, and Israel will be holding a livestreamed press conference at 9:30 PM (AEST) to discuss the findings of the report.

June 27, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Israel takes perverse pleasure in torturing, raping, and murdering Palestinian hostages

In August 2024, Israeli human rights advocacy group, B’Tselem, published a report highlighting the systematic torture, abuse, and rape of Palestinian prisoners. The spokesperson for B’Tselem said,

“We heard similar accounts of sexual abuse, starvation and assault from separate prisoners held in 16 different locations across Israel. As we gathered the testimonies, we realised that every witness account was almost identical, no matter what their age, gender or location was. There’s no doubt. This kind of abuse is systematic.”

Palestinians abducted, imprisoned, starved, electrocuted, tortured, raped, and even subjected to simulated burial. This is the reality of Palestinian hostages tortured by Israel

Eva Karene Bartlett, Jun 23, 2026

In late 2023, Israeli soldiers abducted and imprisoned a Palestinian man (among many abducted at the same time) from a school in Jabaliya, Gaza, which he and other displaced Palestinians had been sheltering in. He was held hostage in Israeli prisons for nearly two years, during which time he was severely tortured by repeated and prolonged electrocution (including multiple times a day). His Israeli torturers at some point locked him in coffin-like box for two weeks in their attempt to psychologically break him.

According to Imad Nabhan, he refused to act as an informant for Israel. The Israeli soldiers first attempted to bribe him into collaboration, then defaulted to Israel’s (now well-documented) norm of brutal physical and psychological torture of Palestinian captives.

Nabhan’s release in October 2025 saw Imad so physically debilitated by the electric shock torture that he fell unconscious into violent seizures numerous times daily.

At the end of May, he spoke about the torture he endured in Israeli prisons, including his “coffin torture”. He reported that he had been held in “an iron container with a wooden box inside it,” where his hands and feet were tied, fed through a tube in a small hole, just enough to keep him alive.

“It seemed they wanted to make me feel like I was dead so they could get whatever information they wanted. I stayed inside that coffin for 15 days. I felt like I was alive in a dead body.”

In October 2025, while a journalist in Gaza was attempting to interview Nabhan after his release, Imad fell into one of his seizures, his whole body writhing and convulsing, his head repeatedly banging against the ground.

This lasted for 30 seconds, and started again a minute later as his father tried to shield his son’s head from hitting the ground. He spoke of Imad’s torture, showing the marks left on his legs from the repeated electric shocks.

His father had said until his release, he’d thought his son was dead. “We thought he’d been martyred, because there was information they shot people and were running over their bodies with tanks. So after two years, we were surprised that was alive in prison and was released.”

The Israeli torture and abuse meted out to Imad Nabhan is not unique, it is the norm, and in recent years there have been increasingly numerous accounts from former prisoners of the torture, rape, abuse, starvation, and denied medical care they endured in Israeli captivity, in violation of all international norms…………………………………………..

Living Hell: Israeli torture prisons

Among the more horrific instances (known to the public) of Israeli soldiers’ raping of Palestinian prisoners was the July 2024 gang rape of a Palestinian man from Gaza in the notorious Sde Teiman prison (dubbed the Israeli Guantanamo).

Hiding their faces with their shields, Israeli soldiers took turns raping the prisoner so severely he was hospitalized unable to walk, with “a torn rectum, damaged lungs, and broken ribs.” [Note: Many Palestinians who have testified about their severe torture in Israeli prisons were not given medical care afterward.]

Astonishingly (to normal people), after a video of the rape was leaked and aired on Israeli television, not only was the Israeli public reaction not disgust or horror, but Israelis, members of the Knesset, and Israeli ministers protested the detention of soldiers accused of the gang-rape. None of the soldiers were charged.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir called their brief detention “shameful”, saying the rapists were “our best heroes”.

In August 2024, Israeli human rights advocacy group, B’Tselem, published a report highlighting the systematic torture, abuse, and rape of Palestinian prisoners. The spokesperson for B’Tselem said,

“We heard similar accounts of sexual abuse, starvation and assault from separate prisoners held in 16 different locations across Israel. As we gathered the testimonies, we realised that every witness account was almost identical, no matter what their age, gender or location was. There’s no doubt. This kind of abuse is systematic.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. When the issue of Palestinian hostages tortured in Israeli prisons is reported these days, the focus is often only on Palestinians from Gaza. But on a near daily basis throughout the West Bank, Palestinian men, women and children are abducted, arrested and held imprisoned, without charges, many of them repeatedly so. It is clearly not about crimes committed but about trying to break Palestinians psychologically, by the same means of torture, starvation, sexual abuse, and physical abuse.

Israel added to UN sexual violence blacklist

The United Nations put Israel on its annual blacklist of entities “credibly suspected of committing widespread sexual violence in conflict zones.” Victims include 31 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank, including 14 men, seven women, nine boys, and one girl.

Violations included, “rape, including with objects, gang rape, attempted rape, physical violence to the genitals, instances of targeted shooting of the genitals.” Nine in the report were raped, including gang rape, some repeatedly.

………………………………………………………………………………………………….. That Israel faces no consequences nor any pressure to stop such torture, what is described as a systematic top-down policy, highlights yet again the death of international law and the meaningless of UN designations. As I’ve argued many times over the years, what’s the point of listing Israel as a serial murdered and rapist if no international body will actually stop Israel from continuing to abduct, torture and rape Palestinians?…………………………………………………………………… https://evakarenebartlett.substack.com/p/israel-takes-perverse-pleasure-in?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3046064&post_id=202287735&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ise1&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

June 25, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

More Palestinians killed by Israeli military and settlers across occupied West Bank in last 3 years since Gaza hostilities than previous 17 combined – Oxfam

11 June 2026 AIMN Editorial, https://theaimn.net/more-palestinians-killed-by-israeli-military-and-settlers-across-occupied-west-bank-in-last-3-years-since-gaza-hostilities-than-previous-17-combined-oxfam/

More than one in five killed over last 20 years were children.

More Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli military and settlers across the occupied West Bank in the last three years than in the previous 17 years combined, analysis from Oxfam has found. The number of children killed over the last three years was also higher.

An analysis of United Nations data found that 1,036 Palestinians – including 225 children – had been killed by Israeli forces or settlers between 2006 and the end of 2022. However, in the last three years, from 2023 to the end of last year by comparison, 1,244 Palestinians – including 268 children – have been killed.

Over the 20 years, 22 per cent – more than one in five of those killed – have been children.

For the same periods analysed, in the 17 years between 2006 until the end of 2022, 86 Israeli settlers, including 12 children, were killed by Palestinians. In the last three years – from 2023 to the end of 2025 – 43 Israeli settlers have been killed, including ten children.

The West Bank continues to be subjected to Israeli policies and practices of fast-tracked annexation, amid record mass forced displacement, movement restrictions, killings by army and settler militias, and ongoing military operations. Checkpoints and closures are fragmenting the territory and limiting access to essential services and livelihoods, while repeated state-backed settler violence is driving mass displacement.

Bushra Khalidi, Oxfam International Humanitarian Policy Lead said: “The mounting killing of civilians in the West Bank is tragic and horrifying. While the eyes of the world have been on Gaza, attacks in the West Bank have been accelerating. Since the atrocities committed by Hamas and other armed groups in 2023, Israel has committed genocide in Gaza while also enabling an unprecedented surge of violence across the West Bank.

“Oxfam works with Palestinian families whose lives have been destroyed. It is devastating that scores of children are being killed. This is the human cost of impunity, Israeli violence and cruelty in full view, while world leaders look the other way”.

A record number of Palestinians in the West Bank – nearly 46,000 – have been forcibly displaced over the last three years, compared to just over 13,000 for the previous 14 years combined by Israeli military operations, settler violence, demolitions and access restrictions. Many families are having to live in unstable and insecure conditions, often with host communities or in informal shelter arrangements, with limited access to essential services.

Saed* is 50 years old and was forced out of his home in the Ein Samya community. He said: “We used to deal with settlers all the time, but over the past three years, settler violence has increased massively. Eventually we had to leave and now a settler is staying in my home. I saw him. He took over the community too. It breaks my heart to talk about the past.

“We went to another community in Jericho, but it did not stop there. Settlers closed the roads, carried weapons, harassed and terrified our children on their way to school, and grazed their livestock inside our community, next to our houses. In the worst cases they would steal our livestock under the protection of the army and police.”

Communities across the West Bank have experienced repeated demolitions and destruction not just of their homes but water pipelines, animal shelters and trees. Last year, the World Health Organisation documented over 230 attacks on healthcare facilities, including obstructed access, the vandalization of ambulances and harassment of medical staff.

There is now a record 925 obstacles that permanently or intermittently restrict the movement of over 3 million Palestinians across the West Bank including East Jerusalem. This is 43 per cent more than the annual average of 647 movement obstacles in the preceding 20 years.

In the first three months of this year alone there have been more than 540 settler attacks, 33 Palestinian people killed and more than 2,200 people displaced. More than 60 water and sanitation structures have been vandalized, including pipelines, irrigation systems and water tanks, which have undermined access to water in 32 Palestinian communities.

Despite Israel’s ongoing process of ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, Oxfam and its partners continue to support vulnerable communities across the West Bank with humanitarian assistance, including clean water, food, the rehabilitation of agricultural water cisterns and livestock shelters.

Oxfam is calling for an end to Israel’s unlawful occupation and further annexation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and to the foreign complicity in the illegal occupation and settlement enterprise. A just and sustainable peace must be anchored in international law and the right to self-determination.

June 14, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment

Visual data reveals extent of systematic Israeli white phosphorus attacks on south Lebanon: Report

These shells are designed to release 116 burning felt wedges that can be detonated high in the air and drift over a radius of up to 250 meters, causing widespread fires on the ground. 

Lebanon’s Ministry of Environment has formally accused the Israeli military of committing ‘an act of ecocide,’ resulting in an estimated $25 billion in damages

The humanitarian risks of these munitions are devastating because white phosphorus causes horrific, deep-tissue burns that can reach the bone and may reignite if exposed to oxygen after treatment.

News Desk, JUN 7, 2026, https://thecradle.co/articles/visual-data-reveals-extent-of-systematic-israeli-white-phosphorus-attacks-on-south-lebanon-report

A report by The New York Times (NYT) published on 6 June gathers thorough documentation that the Israeli military has repeatedly deployed white phosphorus over populated areas in southern Lebanon during its ongoing war and invasion of the country.

Visual evidence collected by NYT, including verified social media footage and news coverage, shows distinctive smoke trails and airbursts over cities like Nabatieh and Tyre, as well as smaller towns like Qlayaa, Khiam, and Yohmor, with incidents documented as recently as May 2026.

While the Israeli military maintains that its use of these munitions is intended for smoke screens and complies with international law, human rights experts assert that deploying such an indiscriminate incendiary substance in civilian-heavy areas violates the laws of war.

The body of evidence gathered by numerous international observers and human rights groups is extensive and corroborates these findings. 

Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have verified dozens of videos and photos showing the airbursting of US-made M825A1 artillery shells. 

These shells are designed to release 116 burning felt wedges that can be detonated high in the air and drift over a radius of up to 250 meters, causing widespread fires on the ground. 

In Yohmor, HRW geolocated eight images from March 2026 showing these munitions exploding over residential neighborhoods, directly resulting in fires in homes and vehicles. 

Similar evidence from Dhayra in October 2023 includes testimony from residents and doctors who treated nine civilians for suffocation and respiratory damage caused by the “garlic-like” smoke.

Independent researchers have now documented over 200 uses of the substance in Lebanon since October 2023, which the Lebanese government reports have caused more than 600 fires.

This pattern of use extends far beyond recent events in Lebanon; Israel has a long history of deploying white phosphorus in the region, including during the 1982 and 2006 wars in Lebanon, extensively in Gaza in 2009, and throughout its ongoing genocidal campaign since 2023.

Amnesty International documented the use of white phosphorus artillery shells in densely populated civilian areas in Gaza shortly after the launch of the war on 7 October, 2023; this deployment directly violated a 2013 pledge by the Israeli military to phase out the use of the incendiary substance in populated areas.

The humanitarian risks of these munitions are devastating because white phosphorus causes horrific, deep-tissue burns that can reach the bone and may reignite if exposed to oxygen after treatment. 

Beyond the immediate physical trauma, the substance poses long-term environmental hazards by contaminating soil and water, necessitating specialized cleanup operations before farmers can safely return to their land.

Due to the indiscriminate nature of these illegal weapons, rights groups continue to call for an immediate halt to their use in residential areas.

Lebanon’s Ministry of Environment formally accused the Israeli military of committing “an act of ecocide,” back in April 2026, citing a National Council for Scientific Research report that details $25 billion in damages, including the destruction of thousands of hectares of forest and orchards alongside extreme phosphorus soil contamination in strikes conducted between 2023 and 2024. 

June 12, 2026 Posted by Christina Macpherson | Atrocities, Israel | Leave a comment