The Israeli army has confirmed that soldiers marked Palestinian detainees with numbers on their foreheads during a raid on the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank earlier this week.<\/p>\n
Palestinian news outlets reported the incident, which took place on Monday.<\/p>\n
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According to the Palestinian Wafa news agency, Israeli forces had deployed in several neighbourhoods of Qabatiya, with local sources telling the news agency that soldiers had searched a number of houses and arrested several young men.<\/p>\n
The army also said in a statement that troops had arrested two people during the raid who were suspected of \u201cplanning and promoting terrorist plots\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, footage published on Monday from the raid showed a Palestinian man with the number \u201c44\u201d written on his forehead, sparking outrage.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what we know.<\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
One of the detainees, Ahmad al-Hathnawi, who was marked with the number, told Palestinian media that this was the first time that the army had written numbers on his forehead.<\/p>\n
Al-Hathnawi explained that he had been released from Israeli detention 10 days ago for the fourth time, but said that he had never experienced something like this before.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just interrogation and terrorism, intimidation of the families and the freed detainees,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are basically trying to send a message that if settlers come into the area, there will be no problems, and that the settlers are going to remain here for a long time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Israeli settlers, often tacitly or overtly facilitated by Israeli troops, have in recent weeks significantly ramped up attacks on Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
Al-Hathnawi explained that there were about \u201c50 detainees, including blindfolded women, in the house\u201d where he was interrogated.<\/p>\n
But the practice of marking Palestinian detainees with numbers is not new, and was previously reported in April after soldiers had written numbers on the hands of Palestinian women in Jenin. At the time, the Israeli army acknowledged that it was \u201cpoor judgement\u201d.<\/p>\n
What has the army said?<\/p>\n
In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli army told the Times of Israel that soldiers had marked detainees in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommanders made clear to the troops the seriousness of the act, and lessons have been learned,\u201d the military said.<\/p>\n
Knesset lawmaker Ahmad Tibi condemned the marking and called it \u201cshocking and repulsive\u201d in a post on X.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what dehumanisation looks like: erasing the person and turning them into a number. An image that recalls dark periods and should shock every person,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
What is going on in the West Bank?<\/p>\n
Israeli forces have ramped up their campaign of raids and arrests in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n
On Monday, illegal settlers put up tents on Palestinian land to create a new settlement outpost near Ramallah, while another group of settlers continues to besiege the village of Qusra, now for the 11th day.<\/p>\n
The mayor of Qusra told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that he fears the siege of families in the town could represent a \u201cnew approach\u201d aimed at forcing Palestinians from their homes.<\/p>\n
He added that the families\u2019 food supplies would run out within two days and that they urgently needed supplies and medicines.<\/p>\n
At the same time, the Palestinian prime minister\u2019s office said on Wednesday that Israeli forces and settlers had carried out \u201cmore than 467 attacks against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank in just one week\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt least 75 Palestinian homes and structures were demolished. A relentless escalation of violence, dispossession, and destruction,\u201d the office wrote on X.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territory, told Al Jazeera that settler violence and the ongoing siege in Qusra had reached a \u201cclimax\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsrael has outsourced coercion to the settlers and is using them to advance ethnic cleansing,\u201d Albanese said. \u201cThis is a crime\u2026 This is utter terrorism; these settlers should be investigated and prosecuted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Israeli army has confirmed that soldiers marked Palestinian detainees with numbers on their foreheads during a raid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[44,37,497,49,42,498],"class_list":["post-256306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-explainer","tag-israel","tag-israel-palestine-conflict","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-palestine"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117122834387846357","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}