This week the Israeli occupation forces have escalated attacks by conducting a major assault in the occupied West Bank, targeting Jenin, Tulkarem and Far’a camp. It marks a significant escalation because Israel’s ongoing military operation in the occupied West Bank is the largest of its kind since 2002, when prominently the Jenin refugee camp was the site of invasion and widespread violence.

This escalation is marked by unlawful killings and forced displacement of Palestinians. Leading human rights organisation Amnesty International release the following stated to condemn Israel’s latest assault:

“Israel’s launch of a major coordinated military assault on cities and towns across the occupied West Bank follows an escalation in unlawful killings by Israeli forces in recent months and will put more Palestinians at risk. Since October, last year, there has been a horrifying spike in lethal force by Israeli forces and violent state-backed settler attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, with Israeli forces and settlers killing at least 622 Palestinians, including at least 142 children.”

The Palestinian health ministry reported 16 people had been killed. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has called on Israel to immediately halt its operation, saying it was “fuelling an already explosive situation”. He called on Israeli occupation forces to “exercise maximum restraint and use lethal force only when it is strictly unavoidable”. In Jenin, ambulances were being stopped and checked by military jeeps parked around the government hospital as security forces continued their operation in the city's refugee camp. Israel has become renowned globally for it targeting of Palestinian health care.

The Palestinian Mission to the UN condemned the raids in a letter on Thursday, saying the Israeli military had “invaded homes, deliberately targeted civilians, destroyed vital infrastructure and even besieged the four main hospitals in the area”.

The Palestinian Return Centre calls on the international community to immediately intervene to prevent an escalation that could potentially lead to the catastrophe unfolding in Gaza. We join the call from other Palestinian groups, such as the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction movement,  to: “impose a comprehensive military embargo on Israel, including the export, import and transfer of weapons, military equipment, and dual use items, as well as military training, joint research, investments, etc.)”