Israel's Violent Invasion of West Bank Parallels the Early Stages of War on Gaza: UN Rapporteur on Palestine

In an interview with Drop Site News, Albanese said, “I see a serious pattern parallel with what is happening in the Gaza Strip”—“patterns of torture, of destruction, of extrajudicial killings, of uprooting that are very similar to Gaza.”

Beginning in the predawn hours on Wednesday, hundreds of Israeli forces in columns of armored vehicles and bulldozers backed by drones and helicopters stormed into refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, and Tubas. Israel also carried out drone strikes and snipers have reportedly been firing on people inside Jenin.

Internet and cell phone service, as well as water and sewage systems, were shut down in parts of the West Bank as Israeli forces conducted house raids. Local residents have reported widespread demolitions of their homes and streets and the blocking of ambulances and medical workers attempting to reach wounded people. Israeli forces surrounded the main hospital in Jenin and have reportedly been searching people entering and exiting the facility.

“This is an incredible scaling up of the violence of the preceding months and in particular weeks,” said Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, “with a full military assault, destroying hospitals, destroying roads, destroying vital infrastructure which had already been severely damaged during the preceding months, and Voila!, telling the Palestinians to go, ordering mass evacuations.”