Israel warns against celebrations in the West Bank

Israeli forces handed out flyers warning Palestinian residents in the Occupied West Bank not to celebrate the release of prisoners on October 13th, the Middle East Eye via Al Jazeera reported.

The flyers were distributed in areas where prisoners’ families reside, stating that “anyone who participates in such activities exposes himself to punishment and arrest.”

Israeli authorities have made a similar move in the past. Israel forbade the wife of Nael Barghouti and the family of Khalil Abu Al-Rub from travelling to Egypt to greet them upon their release.

As part of the US-led ceasefire deal, Israel is expected to release 250 Palestinian prisoners serving life sentences or lengthy sentences, along with 1,700 detainees from the Gaza Strip, in exchange for Hamas freeing all remaining Israeli captives, including the dead.

However, the ceasefire proposal has been criticised for failing to hold the Israeli government accountable for what the Human Rights Watch director for Israel and Palestine, Omar Shakir, called two years of “a seemingly endless stream of atrocities against civilians for which there has been no let-up or justice.”

Palestinians detained by Israel have faced horrific abuse, including beatings and starvation; in which one Palestinian prisoner said they were “beaten daily for 30 days straight.”

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on September 7th that Palestinian security prisoners were being denied basic nutrition, a verdict that was denounced by Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who insisted that Israel should continue to provide only the bare minimum nutrition to Palestinian detainees.

Ben-Gvir was sanctioned by the UK government, in tandem with Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Norway, for what Downing Street called his “repeated incitement of violence against Palestinian civilians.”

Footage emerged of Ben-Gvir threatening a Palestinian prisoner, warning him that Israel will “obliterate” its opponents; he had also urged the Israeli Knesset to vote for a bill that would allow Palestinian prisoners to be executed by a “shot to the head” on June 30th, 2024.

The number of Palestinians detained by Israeli authorities was estimated to be 10,800 in August, the highest number of Palestinian prisoners in 25 years; the figure included 49 women and more than 450 children.

The latest warning from Israel comes amid Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank facing escalating violence from Israeli settlers, including the September 5th attack on the village of Khillet al-Dabaa in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, which left residents with injuries.

Middle East Eye via Al Jazeera, Maghrebi.org