Elham Asaad Buaras
Israel has escalated its military tactics in the occupied West Bank, mirroring its war in Gaza. Palestinians now face mass forced displacement, intensified airstrikes, and a sharp rise in attacks on children and civilians, according to a report by Israeli human rights group B’Tselem.
Titled Gaza Doctrine: West Bank Under Fire and released on March 10, the report highlights Israel’s most intense operations in the West Bank in at least two decades, describing the “Gazafication” of its occupation. Since 7 October 2023, Israeli airstrikes in the region have killed more Palestinians than during the Second Intifada. The rate of child fatalities has reached unprecedented levels, based on over 20 years of B’Tselem’s data.
In January alone, Israeli military operations in three West Bank refugee camps forced 40,000 people from their homes—the largest displacement since Israel’s occupation began in 1967. Israel’s Defence Minister, Israel Katz, stated that troops would remain in the area “for the coming year,” preventing residents from returning. Israel insists its operations target militant Palestinian groups, pointing to refugee camps as historic strongholds for armed resistance. However, B’Tselem’s Executive Director, Yuli Novak, condemned the military’s actions: “Israel’s complete disregard for international law in Gaza is now being replicated in the West Bank. Though on a smaller scale, it is already causing indiscriminate and disproportionate killing and destruction.”
The Guardian spoke to families devastated by these attacks. Among them is Rigd Gasser, whose 14-year-old son Ahmad Rashid Jazar was shot on 19 January while running an errand to buy bread. Gasser, who was in a nearby café when he heard the gunshots, rushed outside. “I got closer and recognised my son. His body was covered in blood. I knew him by his clothes,” he recalled. Israeli forces have been raiding his village daily since the war began.
After the Gaza ceasefire in January, Israel deployed a surge of troops, including tanks, to the West Bank. Military operations in Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nur Shams refugee camps escalated what had already been the deadliest bombing campaign in the territory. Over the past 17 months, B’Tselem documented 64 airstrikes that killed 261 Palestinians—both militants and civilians—including at least 41 minors. That number is more than three times the total deaths from airstrikes during the second intifada, which lasted over four years. Between 2000 and 2004, B’Tselem recorded 78 deaths from airstrikes, including 10 children.
The report describes Israel’s increasing use of airstrikes as part of a “broader conceptual and operational shift” that places civilians at greater risk. The Israeli military did not respond to requests for comment.
Muhammad Khreiwish lost his niece and nephew in an airstrike on October 3, 2024. Sham Abu Zahara, eight, and Karam Abu Zahara, five, were killed alongside their parents and an uncle when an airstrike targeted a café in Tulkarm. The café, located on the ground floor of an apartment building, was next door to their home.
Khreiwish arrived at the scene just as an explosion knocked him off his bike. As others fled, he ran toward the wreckage. “I found pieces of bodies I couldn’t recognise. Then I saw my niece,” he said. He called for help, but it was too late. All he could do was wrap her shattered body and take it to the hospital morgue. The airstrike killed 18 people; B’Tselem found that at least six were civilians.
Since October 2023, Israeli forces have killed 180 children in the West Bank, making it the deadliest period for Palestinian children in the territory’s nearly 60-year occupation, according to B’Tselem. Previously, the most dangerous period was the second intifada, when 246 children were killed over 63 months. The current rate of child deaths is now twice as high. B’Tselem attributes this surge in child fatalities partly to Israel’s looser rules of engagement. The military expanded its “open fire” policy, allowing soldiers to shoot to kill anyone suspected of “messing with the ground,” according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
Reda Basharat, eight, and his cousin Hamza Basharat, 10, were killed in a drone strike on January 8 while sitting outside their home. That morning, Israeli forces had closed roads near their village, Tammun, preventing them from attending school. Hamza’s mother, Eman Basharat, described her son as a cheerful child who loved studying and was frustrated about missing an English test that day.
The boys were outside with their 23-year-old cousin Adam when the drone strike hit. Hearing the explosion, Eman ran out to find Hamza struggling to breathe. “I held him, wiped the blood from his face, and recited the Shahada. He died in my arms,” she said. Israeli soldiers later took the bodies for several hours before returning them without explanation.
“When I think about my son’s death and see what’s happening in Gaza, I realise they are doing the same thing here,” Eman said. Israeli officials have made similar comparisons. Defence Minister Katz told the Knesset that operations in the West Bank were based on “lessons from Gaza.” Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich warned that if Palestinians “continue with terrorism… their fate will be like Gaza’s.” He singled out Tulkarm and Jenin refugee camps, saying they “will look like Jabaliya and Shujayah [in Gaza].”
The Israeli military denies forcibly displacing Palestinians, claiming that camp residents “chose” to leave to escape fighting. However, numerous families said Israeli forces directly ordered them to evacuate, either in person or via loudspeaker broadcasts.
Fatma Shab, 63, and her husband Yusuf, 68, fled their home in Nur Shams refugee camp as Israeli forces advanced. They first sought shelter with their son, but soldiers later demolished his home. Forced to move again, they now live in a wedding hall in Kafr al-Labad, sharing two bathrooms with 14 other people. Yusuf, permanently connected to an oxygen tank, was evacuated by ambulance. “People here are kind, but in my home, I was comfortable,” Fatma said. “Even choosing clothes from my closet was a luxury. Now, I wear whatever I have.”
She doubts they will ever return. “My home is so close, but I can’t go back. In Gaza, they were forced out and killed. Here, it’s happening again.”
Photo: Gaza Doctrine: West Bank Under Fire report by B’Tselem
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