Israeli forces conducted their deadliest raid in occupied territory in years last week—killing 10 Palestinians—as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline government attempts to make good on its vow to “subdue” Palestinians “once and for all.”

Israel’s ongoing and escalating illegal occupation and draconian human rights abuses of the Palestinians is not “news” for mainstream America which sells the life and death of what they call “celebrities” and the ups and downs of sports heroes. 

In the last 30 days, 34 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces. Last year, Israel killed more than 170 Palestinians, including women and children. 

Israel has ramped up these deadly raids in recent months, focusing attacks on Nablus and Jenin.

The Israeli raid inside the refugee camp in Jenin on 26 January has been called a “mass slaughter” of Palestinians. An additional 20 were injured, including four who are listed in critical condition. Two of the victims killed were children.

Israeli forces, who arrived just before 7 a.m., were accused of blocking emergency crews from reaching the victims and shooting at ambulances. Mai al-Kaileh, the Palestinian health minister, said a nearby hospital was also stormed and accused Israeli forces of firing tear gas canisters inside a pediatric department, forcing new mothers to flee with their newborn babies, WSWS.org reported.

The raid was seen as Israel’s largest in the West Bank since 2002. The Israelis used surface-to-air missiles and other explosives during the raid. Israel said Palestinian resistance fighters were taking shelter in the building. Al Jazeera said three known fighters were killed inside the home and one was arrested.

The report said the situation at the camp is dire and the 10,000 people living there face treacherous conditions that have only gotten worse after the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Israeli police have been conducting raids and the Palestinian Authority has been criticized for not going far enough to protect civilians.

Revenge

A day after the deadly raid in Jenin, a Palestinian gunman opened fire outside a synagogue in Jerusalem, killing seven, in an apparent act of retaliation. 

Israeli authorities called the recent shooting near the Ateret Avraham synagogue in East Jerusalem an act of terrorism.

Israeli police gave chase and killed the suspect in the shooting, Khaire Alkam, who The Wall Street Journal said was 21 years old and lived in the area.

Israeli forces moved to demolish the family home of the gunman on Monday. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s hardline security cabinet wants the “families of terrorists that support terrorism,” France 24 reported.

Dani Shenhar, a legal expert at Israeli rights group HaMoked, told the station that Israel has already sealed off the house, which signals the willingness of the Netanyahu government’s desire for “revenge against the families.”

The measure was carried out “in complete disregard for the rule of law”, he said.

TRENDPOST: The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the hypocrisy in the Western media in the coverage of Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s daily attacks on Palestinians on stolen land.

Anyone in the West who criticizes Israel is quickly dismissed as an anti-Semite. At most, Washington will call for calm, that’s when the crimes Israel commits are particularly egregious. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is a good example of the hypocrites in Washington who allow Israel to smash Palestinians. 

Graham, who visited Ukraine last week, lashed out at Russia for invading Ukraine, and said he tells voters from his state that “you cannot allow one country to destroy another country and expect that it will not bother you one day.” 

And yet, that is exactly what Israel is doing, but when those retaliate they are called “terrorists” and “militants.”

In the 1967 six-day war, Israel invaded and seized Palestinian territories of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, and the Syrian Golan Heights, expelling some 300,000 Palestinians from their homes, while gaining stolen territory that was three and a half times its original size. To date, some 670,000 Israelis live in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. They violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 which states, “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.”

The Israel Defense Forces said troops were tasked with preventing imminent attack plans by a “local wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group,” The Times of Israel reported. 

“This squad was a ticking time bomb. If we didn’t act, they would have,” a senior IDF officer said, according to the paper.

The Trends Journal has reported extensively on tensions between Israel and Palestinians. (See: “UN RESOLUTION: ISRAEL FACES INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION FOR PUNISHING PALESTINIANS” 24 Jan 2023, “UN TAKES TO RULE ON ISRAEL SETTLEMENTS OF PALESTINIANS TERRITORIES” 10 Jan 2023, “LARGE-SCALE PROTESTS BREAK OUT IN ISRAEL OVER NETANYAHU’S ‘REFORM’ PLANS” 17 Jan 2023, and “NETANYAHU’S COALITION MAKES DEAL WITH CONVICTED RACIST TO STAMP DOWN PALESTINIANS” 29 Nov 2022.)

The latest flashpoint occurred after Zvika Fogel, a member of Itamar Ben-Gvir’s ultra-nationalist Jewish Power party, told an Israeli news station that there should be a “final war” that “subdues them [Palestinians] once and for all.”

“It would be worth it because this will be the final war,” he said. “And after that, we can sit and raise doves and all the other beautiful birds that exist.” (See “ISRAELI MP WANTS TO WAGE WAR AGAINST PALESTINIANS,” 10 Jan 2023.)

Israel resorts to punishing Palestinians whenever they voice concerns about the mistreatment. 

More than 90 countries signed a statement last week condemning Israel’s decision to punish Palestine after the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to recommend legal consequences tied to Israel’s 55-year-old occupation and annexation of Palestinian territories. (See “UN RESOLUTION: ISRAEL FACES INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION FOR PUNISHING PALESTINIANS,” 24 Jan 2023.)

No matter how many resolutions the UN produces, as long as the U.S. continues to support Israel and give its prime minister permission to continue stealing land, the crime will continue. Indeed, President Joe Biden, on his first trip to Israel, called himself a “Zionist.”

“The connection between the Israeli and American people is bone-deep,” he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also said recently—during a joint press conference with Netanyahu—that Washington’s commitment to Israel is “ironclad.”

George Bisharat, a professor at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, told Al Jazeera that occasional bursts of violence between Israel and Palestinians is not important.

“From the United States’ point of view, let’s be real: They don’t give a damn about Palestinian lives,” Bisharat said. “They only care to the extent that these flare-ups interfere with what the United States perceives to be its strategic interests in the region, which have nothing to do with human rights—of anybody, not just the Palestinians.”