Israeli media today report that Defense Minister Israel Katz gave an order yesterday for the IDF to prepare to raze another Palestinian refugee camp in the West Bank, on the model of what they did in Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. IDF military operations, including mass infrastructure destruction and forced displacement, have left refugee camps in those cities in ruins and largely depopulated, and more than 30,000 people, including children, displaced, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Palestinian National Council President Rawhi Fattouh charged that Katz’s announcement is “an explicit declaration” of the Israeli government’s intent to continue its policy of ethnic cleansing, in violation of international humanitarian law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, and the Rome Statute. He reminded that forced displacement, destruction of property, and attacks on civilian communities are war crimes and crimes against humanity that require international accountability, Egypt’s Al Ahram daily reported.
Even before this latest atrocity, on July 26, the courageous Lutheran pastor in Bethlehem, Rev. Munther posted a five-minute video to his X account, with an “urgent message and call to prayer” for action to stop the Israeli settler violence which has become “a daily, relentless reality” which has Palestinians already living in “fear and terror.”
