On the Shooting of a Soldier at the Shu’afat Checkpoint: Israel’s Security Forces Embedded in the Armed Forces
The army said that a soldier was killed when he was critically injured in a shooting at the Shu’afat checkpoint. “The solider was evacuated to a hospital for further medical treatment, where she was declared dead. We express our heartfelt condolences to the family.”
According to a Border Police spokesperson “a suspect arrived at the Shuafat crossing and fired at the security forces, in addition, a shot was fired from a passing vehicle. Border Guard forces are looking for the suspects.
The male who was in serious condition was transferred to a hospital and the other female was treated at the scene and in a less serious condition.
The shooting happened at a checkpoint of the normally quiet area near the Shuafat Refugee Camp in East Jerusalem, an area considered occupied by most of the international community.
In a statement, Prime Minister Yair Lapid called the situation “serious” and said “many forces are deployed in the field and work day and night to protect the citizens of Israel. Our hearts tonight are with the victims and their families. Terror will not defeat us, we are strong, even on this difficult evening.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/08/world/violent-weekend-west-bank/index.html
Palestinians in the West Bank: Israeli Defense Forces, Attacks on Palestinians, and the One-State Solution of the Palestine-West Bank Conflict
The youngest was 14-year-old Adel Ibrahim Daoud, shot on Friday near the separation wall between Israel and the West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said, according to Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA.
When asked for comment about Daoud’s death, the Israel Defense Forces said “during IDF routine operational activity, IDF soldiers spotted a suspect who hurled Molotov cocktails at them adjacent to the city of Qalqilya. The soldiers responded with live fire. The hit was identified. The incident is under review.”
The Palestinians threw bombs and Molotov cocktails at the soldiers, and the soldiers retaliated with shots. The soldiers responding with live fire towards the armed suspects. Hit’s were identified.
On Saturday, two 17-year-old Palestinians were killed during an Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
The IDF said forces were in the Jenin refugee camp to arrest an “Islamic Jihad operative” who it claims was “involved in terrorist activities, planning and carrying out shooting attacks towards IDF soldiers in the area.”
The UN Special Commissioner for the Middle East Peace Process said in a statement that he is alarmed by the security situation in the occupied West Bank, which includes East Jerusalem.
Israel has been raiding cities and villages in the occupied West Bank in an effort to stop them from launching attacks on Israel before they have the chance. The operation was launched after a number of attacks on Israelis. In the first three months of the year, 20 Israelis and foreigners have been killed in attacks in Israel and the West Bank.
The mounting violence in the West Bank is creating aclimate of fear and anger. It is important to reduce tensions so that space can be opened up for important initiatives aimed at establishing a viable political horizon.
Alas, though, just because the two-state concept is vanishing doesn’t mean the one-state solution — with Israel alone controlling the West Bank, Jerusalem and pre-1967 Israel forever — automatically becomes the easy default. Not at all. You can see these important things when you look closely at how Israeli Jews and Palestinian Arabs live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
There are a number of long-developing demographic and technological changes reaching tipping points that are stressing all the balances between Jews, Jews and Israelis that have kept this place stable.
By that I am referring to the fading of the peace process and prospects of a two-state solution, the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the corruption and breakdown of the Palestinian Authority and the prevalence of TikTok and other social media. In the past year alone, according to B’Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, roughly 20 Israelis and more than 150 Palestinians have died in violent incidents.
As I conducted a series of focus groups with doctors, nurses, patients and medical faculty members and students, it became clear that it was impossible for me to measure the extent of the damage caused by Israel’s lockdown. Many people referred to the constant buzzing sound of Israel’s military drones as a form of psychological torture. How can I measure that? For one focus group, a public health faculty member arrived 90 minutes late, explaining that the road she tried to take to enter the city was blocked by a checkpoint, so she had to go a different way, recounting the experience as casually as someone might describe mistakenly putting on two mismatched socks. What do these events say about a population?
I have long felt a responsibility to convey the reality of the situation for Palestinians not only as a researcher committed to justice and equity but also as someone whose family hails from the West Bank. I was born in Nablus to two people, a man from a Palestinian town and a woman from a nearby village. My father taught journalism and political science in Nablus before he moved us to the United States, where I grew up. I’m now a professor myself, because I wanted to follow in his footsteps. I’m not a political scientist as my dad was; I’m a scholar of public health. Of course, the two subjects are intertwined in any setting: Health is inherently political. I was reminded of how deep the connection is when I was in Nablus.
The situation has remained the same for the majority of the 50 years, with periods of more freedom for the Palestinians and periods of heavy restriction and violence. I visited family in the West Bank every summer as a child and for most of my adult life. The checkpoint lines were long and the Israeli soldiers looked through our documents. The curfews imposed by Israel made us spend nights only using candles and lanterns. I remember being able to travel to the airport in Tel Aviv but having to switch taxis halfway through the journey to the West Bank because Palestinian taxis weren’t allowed to pick us up. Now I and others of Palestinian descent, regardless of citizenship or country of residence, aren’t even allowed to use that airport without special Israeli permission. We travel in and out of the West Bank through Jordan because of Israel bombing the last Palestinian airport and not allowing construction of a new one. A few weeks ago a few people were able to fly out of the southern Israel airport.
The last night before I was scheduled to leave, Israeli military forces raided the old city of Nablus, killing five Palestinians and injuring at least a dozen more. For me, it was a sleepless night, knowing what was happening just minutes away.
The next day, after many panicked calls with a taxi company, which assured me it could get me out of the city, I left. Unlike Palestinians forced to live under these conditions every day, my time there had an end date. Now I am left to examine and analyze my data.