The Israeli government has approved the formalisation of 19 so-called settlement outposts as independent settlements in the occupied West Bank. This is the third wave of such formalisations this year by the government, which considers settlement expansion and annexation a top priority. During an earlier ceremony of formalisation, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, We are advancing de facto sovereignty on the ground to prevent any possibility of establishing an Arab state in [the West Bank].
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said that a joint operation involving Shin Bet, Israel's internal security agency, and the Israel Border Police had begun "in the area of northern Samaria," using the Israeli biblical term for part of the West Bank. "IDF and ISA forces will not allow terrorism to take root in the area and are acting proactively to thwart it," the IDF said in a statement on X.
Israeli forces and settlers have carried out 2,350 attacks across the occupied West Bank last month in an ongoing cycle of terror, according to the Palestinian Authority's Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission (CRRC). CRRC head Mu'ayyad Sha'ban said on Wednesday that Israeli forces carried out 1,584 attacks including direct physical attacks, the demolition of homes and the uprooting of olive trees with most of the violence focused on the governorates of Ramallah (542), Nablus (412) and Hebron (401).
Dozens of people have been injured in an Israeli military raid on the Palestinian city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, according to medical sources. At least 80 people were wounded, including several who were hit with live ammunition, during the raid that began early on Wednesday, medical sources told Al Jazeera. The Palestine Red Crescent Society told Al Jazeera that its teams treated 36 people, including some who suffered tear gas inhalation.
Under this scenario, Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, imitating Israel's de facto rule of Palestinian territory seized from Jordan in 1967.
"My family and I were forced out under gun threats, along with all the families of the village. We cried over our beautiful days there, and we are still crying. We are in shock because we never deserved this. We are peaceful people who love life, simple and educated people, and we never imagined leaving our home this way."
