This is an excerpt from Palestine Briefing, Al-Monitor's weekly newsletter covering the big stories of the week in Palestine. To get Palestine Briefing in your inbox, sign up here.
While the world’s focus rightly continues to be centered on the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, it’s vital that we not overlook what is happening in the West Bank in terms of Israeli military actions and increased settler violence.
Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself who is known for his extremist and racist statements, has called for the creation of “sterile buffer zones" around Israeli settlements in the West Bank that Palestinians would not be allowed to enter. These zones would even preclude Palestinians from farming their own privately owned fields if they fall in these areas and from participating in the ongoing olive harvest.
Amid an absence of media attention, Israeli troops have stepped up brutal raids in the Jenin refugee camp and have continued their extrajudicial killings. (Israel says it is targeting Hamas and other militant group members since the Hamas attack.)
