Palestine weekly wrap: Israeli security agencies sound alarm on settlers 

A rare reckoning took place within Israel’s security establishment this week, as senior officials issued increasingly stark warnings about settler violence in the occupied West Bank.

According to Israeli media reports, the commander of Israeli military forces in the West Bank, Major-General Avi Bluth, warned in a closed forum that rising settler attacks could spark a Palestinian uprising, and called the actions of the settlers “a disgrace to the Jewish people”.

Former chief of the Mossad intelligence agency, Tamir Pardo, toured Palestinian villages that had suffered settler attacks and said that what he witnessed reminded him, the son of Holocaust survivors, of anti-Jewish violence in the last century. “What I saw today made me feel ashamed to be Jewish,” he told Israel’s Channel 13.

Yet, even as these warnings circulated, settler attacks widened, new illegal outposts were established, and Israel’s navy intercepted a humanitarian flotilla in international waters.

One illustration of the gap between the warnings and the reality on the ground came on Saturday, when the top brass of the Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service attended a 50th birthday celebration for Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, according to Haaretz. Among the attendees were far-right activists convicted for offences related to anti-Palestinian violence.

Ben-Gvir’s wife presented him with a cake featuring a golden noose, the symbol his party adopted in support of the death penalty bill for Palestinian prisoners.

The violence in the occupied West Bank continued unabated this week. According to reports from Palestinian activist networks, on April 29, Israeli forces shot dead 16-year-old Ibrahim Abd al-Khayat during a raid in Hebron, after soldiers fired live ammunition and tear gas. On May 3, Nayef Samaro was killed by Israeli gunfire during a military raid on Nablus.

In Beita, south of Nablus, Jewish settlers set up a new illegal outpost in the Umm al-Jarb area, the fifth on the village’s lands. In Jaloud, also near Nablus, an outpost linked to repeated attacks on nearby villages was evacuated and re-established on the same day, with settlers taking over a Palestinian-owned house. Settlers also closed roads in Yatta, in the southern West Bank, and Deir Jarir, near Ramallah.

On Saturday, settlers attacked Palestinians in Jalud, Hebron and Ein ad-Duyuk near Jericho – the latter in Area A, where Israeli citizens are barred from entering under Israeli law – wounding at least six people, including a 71-year-old woman, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent.

Israeli forces carried out their own actions, bulldozing Palestinian agricultural roads in Sinjil, which has isolated farmland while giving settlers free movement in the vicinity of a nearby outpost. Local Palestinian activist networks also shared an order, signed by Major-General Bluth, declaring the seizure of approximately 11 dunams (1.1 hectares or 2.7 acres) near Khirbet Main in the Southern Hebron Hills for military purposes.

On May 4, Israeli forces demolished a two-storey house in the village of Deirat, east of Yatta, which housed four families comprising 25 people in total, according to local Palestinian activists.

On Friday, a drunk Israeli military reservist from a nearby illegal settler outpost opened fire on Palestinian homes in the Arroub refugee camp near Hebron with his military-issued weapon, according to Haaretz. The military said the incident was “serious” but offered no details of action taken.

Meanwhile, Israeli Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich confirmed to Israeli media this week that he has withheld April’s clearance revenues from the Palestinian Authority – approximately 740 million shekels ($249m) – continuing a now yearlong policy that leaves the governing organisation in dire financial straits and unable to pay employees their full salaries.

Bluth had advised the Israeli cabinet that releasing the funds would help lower tensions in the occupied West Bank, but the far-right Smotrich has reportedly refused to do so.

In occupied East Jerusalem, videos showed Israeli soldiers chasing and dragging a Palestinian child with disabilities during a raid on the Shu’fat camp. Separately, in the same city, following a public outcry, Israeli authorities arrested a Jewish man who was filmed attacking a Christian nun.

Humanitarian flotilla intercepted

In international waters near Greece, the Israeli navy intercepted vessels from the Global Sumud Flotilla, a 58-ship convoy of international activists attempting to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. The navy detained about 175 activists from more than 20 boats.

Flotilla organisers said Israeli forces smashed engines and destroyed navigation equipment, leaving vessels stranded in the path of an approaching storm. Israel said the operation was conducted “peacefully and without casualties” and within international law.

In Gaza, talks stall as strikes, hospital shortages continue

In Gaza, Israeli strikes continued throughout the week. According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, on April 28, a nine-year-old was killed in a strike east of Khan Younis, while a paramedic, Ibrahim Saqr, was killed in a strike near Gaza City on April 29.

On April 30, three Palestinians were killed in a strike near the Kuwait Roundabout in Gaza City, according to local reports.

On May 4, an Israeli drone strike killed at least one person in the Bureij refugee camp. Including that killing, as of May 4, 828 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed, and more than 2,342 have been injured, since the October “ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas.

More than 72,600 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

Even as there has been a small uptick in aid entering Gaza since the reopening of the Zikim crossing, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports still-deteriorating humanitarian conditions. According to OCHA’s latest report on the humanitarian situation on May 1, operational capacity in Gaza continues to diminish as vehicles and generators break down beyond repair, impeding power supply, basic services and humanitarian capabilities.

The enclave’s Ministry of Health warned this week that 86 percent of laboratory and blood bank supplies have reached zero stock, threatening surgical operations, emergency interventions and intensive care.

The Israeli security cabinet met this week to discuss renewing the genocidal war, amid the military’s increasing pressure to do so, after Hamas refused to commit to Israel’s demand of full disarmament. Hamas submitted a counteroffer, insisting that its weapons only be addressed as part of a framework culminating in a Palestinian state. Hamas also demanded that Israel cease expanding its control in Gaza and increase the flow of aid.

The Reuters news agency reported this week that new maps quietly issued by Israel in mid-March have expanded the restricted zone inside Gaza to nearly two-thirds of the Strip’s territory, raising fears among displaced Palestinians that they could be deemed targets, and casting further doubt on whether any withdrawal framework remains viable.