Blatant Israeli incitement to genocide the West Bank

The Israeli government and settler leaders exploited the shooting that took place yesterday afternoon in the village of Al-Funduq, east of Qalqilya Governorate, which led to the killing of two settlers and a policeman, to spread the poison of hatred and incitement against innocent citizens in the West Bank, in order to wage a war of extermination against them, as is the case in the Gaza Strip.

The armed operation was a national response to what Israel and its army were doing to execute and annihilate Gaza, in a criminal war unprecedented in history, with its violent seismic repercussions, which left tens of thousands of martyrs, wounded, disabled, injured, bereaved, oppressed, displaced, refugees, detainees, and those deprived of water, medicine, food, and electricity, and those who are helpless in the face of the stinging cold that has claimed the lives of eighteen citizens so far, and those who cannot sleep for a single moment, under a roof whose sky is the roar of noisy planes and incendiary shells, whose land is deadly cannons, and whose sea is deadly salvos.

The operation was an embodiment of the meaning of the feeling of national unity and brotherhood, in light of the ongoing massacres against the citizens of Gaza, and the successive and frenzied attacks against the citizens of the West Bank, in order to draw the attention of the world and its silent bodies to the necessity of moving urgently to stop the war of extermination, so that Israel would be deterred and retreat from its arrogance, pride and vanity.

The statements of Israeli officials and ministers were not surprising. In every operation that came in response to the violations of the occupation, they would appear from the windows of threat to impose more punitive measures against the Palestinians. However, the new statements made by the extremist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, that the village of Al-Funduq and the cities of Nablus and Jenin must become as Jabalia currently appears, are very dangerous statements, because they represent an explicit call to expand the war of extermination in Gaza and the operations of ethnic cleansing and forced displacement in the northern Gaza Strip, to include the cities, camps and villages of the West Bank. All of this comes within the framework of numerous Israeli plans to tighten control and impose sovereignty over the West Bank in order to deport and displace its people, under the influence of weapons and by giving settlers free rein to carry out acts of sabotage, burning and looting of Palestinian property and attacking unarmed civilian citizens.

Netanyahu responded to Smotrich’s call to convene the Israeli security cabinet today to combat what they claim is West Bank terrorism and to develop a plan to combat it. This was indicated by the Chief of Staff of the Army Herzi Halevi and the Minister of Defense himself, Yisrael Katz, who allowed the army commanders in the so-called Central District to apply the harshest punishment against the Palestinians, including closing cities, villages and camps and preventing movement, in response to repeated calls from the so-called extremist Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, and imposing a military cordon on Nablus, Salfit, Qalqilya and the villages and camps affiliated with them.

The statements of Israeli officials and the calls of settlers to demonstrate and storm Palestinian villages are considered a declaration of a large-scale war on the citizens of the West Bank, and require urgent intervention and action from the United Nations and its bodies to stop this racist campaign of incitement against the Palestinians in the West Bank, end the war of extermination in the Gaza Strip, and hold the criminals and their practices accountable, which repeatedly violate international laws and treaties.