Ten elected West Bank lawmakers held in Israeli prisons
Palestinian Information Center – February 7, 2026
RAMALLAH – Israeli occupation forces (IOF) continue to target elected members of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) in the West Bank, with 10 lawmakers currently held in Israeli prisons, despite the council having been effectively suspended for years by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Among the detainees are two of the longest-held Palestinian political prisoners: Marwan Barghouti and Ahmad Saadat, both serving life sentences. The oldest detainee is Jerusalem lawmaker Mohammad Abu Tir, 75.
Abu Tir was rearrested on November 24, 2025, after the IOF raided his home in Dar Salah, near Bethlehem. He is among several Jerusalem lawmakers whose residency IDs were revoked in 2006 and who have since faced repeated arrests and forced removals from the city.
He has spent nearly half his life in Israeli detention and is currently held in harsh conditions in an underground section of Nitzan prison in Ramla under a four-month administrative detention order.
On September 25, 2025, the IOF arrested lawmaker Yasser Mansour from his home in Nablus. Another PLC member, Nasser Abdul Jawad, 57, was detained on August 21, 2025, from Deir Ballut, west of Salfit. Abdul Jawad, an academic and political figure, has spent around 20 years in Israeli prisons.
Israeli forces also arrested lawmaker Anwar Zaboun, 58, from Bethlehem on August 17, 2025. Husni al-Bourini was detained in October 2024 after a raid on his home in Asira al-Shamaliya in Nablus, while Khaled Suleiman was arrested in Jenin in August 2024.
Lawmaker Mohammad Jamal al-Natsheh, 68, was detained in Al-Khalil in March 2025 and is considered one of the most serious medical cases in Israeli custody.
Senior Hamas figure and PLC member Sheikh Hassan Yousef, 73, was rearrested in October 2023. A prominent West Bank leader and one of the Marj al-Zohour deportees in 1992, he won his parliamentary seat while imprisoned and has spent more than 27 years in Israeli jails.
Rights groups say the detention of elected lawmakers lacks legal basis, constitutes political retaliation, and represents a grave violation of international law, democratic norms, and Palestinian self-governance.
Spain Opens Probe Into Israeli Tourism Firms
IMEMC | January 26, 2026
Spain’s Ministry of Social Rights, Consumer Affairs, and Agenda 2030 has opened a formal investigation into Israeli tourism companies suspected of promoting goods or services linked to Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian land.
In a statement issued Sunday, the ministry said the inquiry aims to determine whether companies operating in Spain have advertised or sold tourism‑related services connected to Israeli colonies in the occupied West Bank, in violation of Spanish law.
The investigation is based on Royal Decree‑Law 10/2025, which prohibits the advertising of goods or services originating from occupied territories.
The decree was adopted in September 2025 as part of Spain’s emergency measures responding to the genocide in Gaza and to ensure that companies operating in Spain do not profit from activities tied to Israel’s occupation.
According to the ministry, the probe focuses on allegations that certain Israeli tourism firms promoted services linked to colonies illegally constructed on Palestinian land under military occupation.
Spanish officials emphasized that such activity would constitute illegal advertising under the decree, given the internationally recognized status of the West Bank as occupied territory and the illegality of Israeli colonial activity under international law.
The ministry stated that the purpose of the inquiry is to identify all companies involved and determine whether their conduct violates Spanish consumer and advertising regulations. If breaches are confirmed, authorities may impose sanctions or restrict the companies’ ability to operate commercially in Spain.
Spanish officials underscored that the investigation reflects the government’s commitment to ensuring that businesses in Spain do not contribute to or profit from Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestinian land.
All of Israel’s colonies in the occupied West Bank, including those in and around occupied East Jerusalem, are illegal under International Law, the Fourth Geneva Convention, in addition to various United Nations and Security Council resolutions. They also constitute war crimes under International Law.
Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits collective punishment and acts of terror against civilian populations.
Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.
Articles 53 and 147 prohibit the destruction of civilian property and classify pillage as a war crime.
Shot, amputated, and imprisoned: Palestinian man seeks to rebuild life after being maimed and tortured by Israeli forces
International Solidarity Movement | January 25, 2026
Ahmad is a 27-year-old Palestinian living in the occupied West Bank. On June 12, 2023, an Israeli soldier shot him in his village near Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank. A bullet hit him in the leg as the military invaded the city; the soldiers left him bleeding and prevented the ambulance from arriving. He almost died. It is a miracle he survived with the blockade delaying rescue efforts, requiring his leg to be amputated. Four months later, he was arrested and placed in administrative detention without charge. He was held for two years in al-Naqab prison in Israel and subjected to repeat torture.
Ahmad was released two months ago. Now, he requires a prosthetic leg, which costs 24,000 shekels, so he can regain control over his life. He is an only child, his father died years ago, and he now lives alone with his elderly mother. Economic conditions are difficult in the West Bank, and he and his mother receive no subsidies. For income and his livelihood, Ahmad used to be a truck driver, which he is no longer able to do because of his injuries and the amputation.
Ahmad’s story:
The bullet that struck Ahmad was the type that explodes when it hits its target. His leg was seriously injured and Ahmad lost a lot of blood. The ambulance was blocked by the Israeli army, and Ahmad was taken to a distant hospital because the road was also blocked by the army. If he had been rescued in time, his leg could have been saved.
“I just want to be able to have a semi-normal life,” he says. “To support myself, to support my mother. I used to drive heavy vehicles, it was my job. Without a leg, I can’t do any job, and I don’t know how to survive.”
Ahmad was arrested just four months after he was injured. No charges, no conviction: he remained for two years under administrative detention, which allows Israel to imprison anyone for years without reason. Despite his health condition, Ahmad was not spared the torture inflicted on the approximately 11,000 prisoners held in Israeli prisons since October 7.
“They beat us every day,” he says. “They fed us only once, and almost exclusively rice. One cup per person. You had to drink a lot of water so you wouldn’t feel hungry all the time,” he reports.
Ahmad lost a lot of weight. The total lack of medical care inside the prison and the harsh living conditions caused him to suffer from severe pain throughout his body, which he still has to deal with today. For weeks, they didn’t give him crutches, and Ahmad couldn’t even get up without help.
“It was very cold, and they took all our clothes. They removed the windows to make us colder, and left us with only one blanket. We all had scabies, and they never gave us any medicine. When we washed our clothes, we had to put them back on wet, because they were the only ones we had.”
The torture described by Ahmad is only a fraction of the torment suffered by Palestinian prisoners.
Report warns that ‘Jewish terrorism is out of control’ and could lead to major security escalation
MEMO | January 22, 2026
An Israeli report warns of a rapid rise in Jewish terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank, saying it has become a widespread phenomenon with serious security and strategic implications. The report cautions that this trend aims to undermine the Palestinian presence and could trigger large waves of violence, while also causing growing damage to Israel’s international standing.
The report, issued on Tuesday by the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University (INSS), says recent years—especially since 7 October 2023—have seen a sharp increase in both the scale and severity of attacks carried out by Jews against Palestinians. It describes these acts as part of a “struggle over control of land” and “growing attempts to weaken the Palestinian presence”, particularly in areas classified as Area C.
According to the report, data from Israeli military and international sources point to a steep rise in such attacks. Figures from the Israeli army’s Central Command show that in 2025 there was an increase of about 27 per cent in incidents classified by the security establishment as “nationalist crime”. Around 870 offences were recorded, including 120 described as serious, compared with 83 serious offences in 2024.
United Nations data, however, present an even darker picture. In 2024, about 1,420 attacks against Palestinians were documented, a 16 per cent rise compared with 2023 and the highest level since systematic monitoring began in 2006. The report says these attacks led to the killing of five Palestinians and injuries to around 350 others. More than 300 Palestinian families — nearly 1,700 people — were also displaced from their homes.
The report adds that the upward trend has continued, noting that the number of attacks in 2025 has “exceeded 1,770 incidents”, surpassing the peak recorded the previous year.
Knesset advances bill mandating death by hanging for Palestinian prisoners
The Cradle | January 13, 2026
Israeli lawmakers are advancing a bill that would introduce executions by hanging for Palestinians convicted under military law, according to a report by Haaretz published on 13 January.
The report detailed the proposal and internal objections following its approval in a first Knesset reading in November.
The legislation, formally titled the “death penalty for terrorists” bill, was initiated by Israeli lawmaker Limor Son Har-Melech of the Otzma Yehudit party and approved by a vote of 39-16.
It would allow Israeli military courts to impose death sentences without a prosecutor’s request and by a simple majority rather than unanimous verdicts.
Under the proposal, executions would be carried out by hanging and completed within 90 days of a final ruling, following a judge-signed order and under the supervision of the Israel Prison Service.
A designated prison officer would perform the execution, appointed directly by the prison service commissioner.
The bill mandates near-total isolation for prisoners sentenced to death, with visits restricted to authorized personnel and legal consultations limited to visual contact via video calls only, with no possibility of sentence reduction once imposed.
Prison officers and the state would be granted full civil and criminal immunity for carrying out executions.
While execution details would be published on the prison service website, the Freedom of Information Law would not apply, and those involved would remain anonymous.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir celebrated the vote by handing out sweets and wearing a gold noose pin.
He later said the noose represented “one of the options,” adding that “the electric chair” and “lethal injection” were also possibilities.
Legal advisors to the Knesset’s National Security Committee warned that the bill raises serious constitutional and legal concerns, saying it would apply only to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, creating a separate legal regime and risking violations of international treaties.
Human rights groups condemned the proposal, with The Association for Civil Rights in Israel saying it would grant the state power to carry out “the intentional taking of a human life,” calling it another step toward a “racist legal system” built on selective and oppressive enforcement against Palestinians.
Israeli forces arrest writer and political researcher Sari Orabi
MEMO | December 26, 2025
Israeli occupation forces arrested the writer and political researcher Sari Orabi after raiding his home at dawn on Thursday in the town of Rafat, north of occupied Jerusalem, according to local media sources.
The sources said Israeli forces carried out wide arrest raids early on Thursday across several areas of the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. The raids targeted a number of young men and former prisoners after their homes were stormed, searched and damaged.
Sari Orabi is a writer and researcher specialising in politics and Islamic thought. His articles have been published in several newspapers, magazines, websites and research centres. He also regularly appears as a commentator on cultural, intellectual and political issues on a number of television channels.
In addition to Orabi, Israeli forces arrested Ibrahim Hourani after raiding his home in the city of Qalqilya. In the town of Aroura, north of Ramallah, they arrested Nasser Mufaraj and his son Amr, and re-arrested former prisoner Tayseer Khusaib following home raids.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office said the continued arrest campaigns show that Israeli policy targets academics, writers, former prisoners and young people alike, rather than a specific group. It said this reflects a clear attempt to suppress public awareness and social influence within Palestinian society.
Israel Orders Demolition of 25 Buildings in Nur Shams
IMEMC | December 14, 2025
Israeli occupation forces issued a military order on Sunday to demolish twenty‑five new buildings in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank.
The decision has drawn sharp condemnation from Palestinian officials, who warn of escalating destruction and forced displacement in the area.
Governor of Tulkarem Abdullah Kamil urged the international community, human rights organizations, diplomatic missions, and embassies to intervene immediately to stop the order.
He described the military order as a continuation of Israel’s systematic campaign of demolition and collective punishment against the residents of Tulkarem and Nur Shams, stressing that it represents a flagrant violation of international law, humanitarian conventions, and human rights treaties.
Kamil emphasized that the measures are part of a deliberate policy of devastation targeting civilians and their property, resulting in widespread displacement.
The two refugee camps have already endured extensive destruction. Earlier this year, more than one hundred buildings and housing units were demolished in both Tulkarem and Nur Shams, in what residents say was an attempt to alter their geographic and social character.
The new order comes as Israeli forces maintain a prolonged siege: Nur Shams has been under siege for three hundred and nine consecutive days, while Tulkarem city and Tulkarem refugee camp have been under siege for three hundred and twenty‑two days.
Entrances remain blocked with earth mounds, concrete cubes, and iron gates, while heavy gunfire is reported daily inside the camps. Residents are barred from returning to their homes, and several houses have been seized and converted into military outposts.
The humanitarian toll has been devastating. More than five thousand families, amounting to over twenty‑five thousand residents, have been displaced from the two refugee camps.
More than six hundred homes have been completely destroyed, while more than two thousand five hundred others have been partially damaged, leaving vast areas uninhabitable.
The ongoing assault has killed fourteen Palestinians, including a child and two women, one of them eight months pregnant.
Dozens more have been injured or abducted, while widespread destruction has devastated infrastructure, homes, shops, and vehicles.
The demolition order in Nur Shams underscores the intensifying Israeli campaign of collective punishment in the occupied West Bank.
With prolonged sieges, forced displacement, and systematic destruction, Tulkarem and its refugee camps have been transformed into zones emptied of civilian life, in clear violation of international law.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli soldiers and paramilitary colonizers have killed 1097 Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, including 226 children and 24 women.
In the Jenin governorate, 308 Palestinians have been killed, while 213 were killed in Tulkarem, 138 in Nablus, 105 in Hebron, 98 in Tubas, 81 in Ramallah, 60 in Jerusalem, 42 in Qalqilia, 32 in Bethlehem, 13 in Jericho and the Jordan Valley, and 7 in Salfit.
Indiscriminate killings: New footage refutes Israel’s pretext for Palestinian teen’s killing
17-year-old Palestinian, Ahmed Khalil Rajabi, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank
Press TV – December 12, 2025
New footage has emerged that challenges Israel’s justification for the killing of a Palestinian teenager last week in the occupied West Bank, which Israeli troops described as a car-ramming attack.
The footage shows 17-year-old Ahmed Khalil Rajabi approaching Israeli soldiers who signaled for him to stop. His car paused briefly, but as the occupation soldiers advanced, one aimed a gun at his vehicle.
In a bid to save his life, Rajabi reversed and made contact with one of the soldiers. And they reportedly chased him and shot him dead.
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Ramallah, said, “The teenager was injured and fled towards Hebron. He was later found and killed inside a car. The body is now being withheld by Israeli forces in what is now standard operating procedure.”
The Israeli forces also shot dead a 55-year-old municipal sanitation worker, Ziad Na’im Jabara Abu Dawud, who was in the area during the incident.
Child rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCIP) also questioned Israel’s narrative and quoted Ahmed’s father as saying his son was “visiting a patient at the hospital and was on his way home” when he was shot.
Israeli forces have withheld the body of Rajabi, refusing to allow his family to bury him.
The Israeli regime has escalated its West Bank violence since October 7, 2023, when it launched a genocidal war on Gaza. Since then, Israeli forces and settlers have killed hundreds of Palestinians in the occupied territory.
Four foreign activists injured by illegal Israeli settlers’ attack in occupied West Bank
Illegal settlers attack Palestinian farmers, journalists and foreign activists in Beita town of Nablus, West Bank on November 8, 2025. [Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency]
MEMO | November 30, 2025
The Israeli army launched a large-scale arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank as illegal settlers attacked foreign activists and Palestinians on Sunday, according to local sources, Anadolu reports.
Three Italian and one Canadian activists were injured by illegal Israeli settlers in Ein ad-Duyuk village of Jericho in the central West Bank, local sources told Anadolu.
The activists were hospitalized, as three of them sustained moderate injuries and the fourth was critically wounded.
Illegal settlers stormed a house in a Bedouin community where the foreign activists have been residing in solidarity with Palestinian residents for a few days, and assaulted them.
The attackers also attempted to steal the activists’ passports, phones, and belongings, in addition to property from the house, the sources said.
According to the official news agency Wafa, illegal Israeli settlers destroyed four vehicles belonging to Palestinians in eastern Salfit in the central West Bank.
A group of illegal Israeli settlers also raided the al-Masoudieh area in Nablus, vandalizing Palestinians’ properties.
According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, an official body, illegal Israeli settlers have carried out 766 attacks against Palestinians and their property in the occupied West Bank in October only.
Meanwhile, Israeli army forces detained four people in two Nablus villages on Sunday. One of the detainees was injured, the official news agency Wafa said, without providing more details on his condition.
Israeli army forces fired tear gas canisters towards locals in the al-Lubban al-Sharqiya town of Nablus, causing several people to suffer from suffocation.
Three people were detained in Ramallah during an Israeli army raid, while a young Palestinian was detained after being beaten by the soldiers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of the occupied East Jerusalem.
Five others, including two ex-prisoners, were arrested in Bethlehem, in the southern West Bank, after their houses were searched by the Israeli forces. According to Palestinian figures, at least 55 Palestinians were detained by Israeli forces in military raids in the West Bank since Saturday.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
10 injured as Israeli occupation escalates raids across West Bank
Al Mayadeen | November 26, 2025
Ten Palestinians were injured on Wednesday after Israeli occupation forces violently beat them during a large-scale military raid in the governorate of Tubas, marking a new escalation in ongoing operations throughout the occupied West Bank.
According to Kamel Bani Odeh, Director of the Prisoners Club in Tubas, the occupation forces detained 34 Palestinians during raids in Tubas, the towns of Aqaba and Tammun, and the village of Tayaseer. Several homes were turned into military posts used for field interrogations and searches, he added.
Meanwhile, in al-Khalil, Israeli settlers assaulted three Palestinians in the town of Yatta, under the protection of occupation soldiers. The attack is another example of the growing settler violence targeting Palestinian residents and their property.
Further north, the Israeli occupation forces’ bulldozers and heavy machinery advanced toward the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem. The camp has been under a strict siege for 291 days, with most of its residents still prevented from returning to their homes after being forcibly displaced.
In addition, occupation forces continued uprooting olive trees and bulldozing agricultural land in Turmusayya, north of Ramallah, as part of a wider expansionist policy aimed at seizing more Palestinian land.
Large-scale aggression hits West Bank
The Israeli occupation army, in cooperation with the Shin Bet security service, initiated a large-scale “military operation” in the northern occupied West Bank around midnight on Tuesday-Wednesday.
Palestinian locals reported that some of their homes had been turned into military positions.
The governor of Tubas, southeast of Jenin, said that the occupation army had erected earthen barriers around the area, explaining that these barriers had paralyzed traffic in the city. He estimated that the operation would last several days.
According to the Israeli Public Broadcasting Authority, three brigades are participating in the operation, working in parallel with support from the police aerial unit and the air force.
The campaign involves search operations and detentions, as well as the seizure of weapons and the monitoring of weapons-manufacturing workshops, in an attempt to thwart the formation of Resistance cells and gather intelligence, according to Israeli media.
Airbnb sued in France for rentals in occupied West Bank
MEMO | November 4, 2025
The Association of Jurists for the Respect of International Law (JURDI) has sued Airbnb in France for listing properties in Palestinian territories occupied by Israel in the West Bank, the BFMTV broadcaster said Tuesday, Anadolu reports.
JURDI, a non-profit group in France that advocates for international law regarding the Israeli-Palestine conflict, accuses Airbnb of supporting war crimes by listing the properties in occupied territories in the West Bank. It is asking the court to order the company to remove listings in Israeli settlements.
“By offering these accommodations, Airbnb contributes to the normalization and perpetuation of the colonial regime, by providing financial resources to settlers and legitimizing their presence,” JURDI said in its lawsuit, excerpts of which were seen by BFMTV.
Attorney Helene Massin-Trachez, who is leading the case, said French law prohibits offering contracts that violate public order, arguing that Airbnb was doing exactly that by promoting unlawful rental agreements to clients based in France.
A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for Jan. 13, and if the court rules in JURDI’s favor, Airbnb will have eight days to comply before facing a €5,000 ($5,740) fine for each day of delay.
The company defended its actions when contacted by BFMTV, denying it profits from the international situation and vowed to remain committed to addressing each of the situations “with the greatest care.”
The French Human Rights League (LDH) filed a complaint against Airbnb and Booking.com last month for listing properties in Israeli settlements in Palestinian territories.
The complaint accuses those companies of complicity and aggravated concealment of war crimes, underlining that the platforms promote “occupation tourism” by offering listings in Israeli settlements.
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From the Archives
A short history of British torture
ICC | December 2005
When the House of Commons was debating how much to increase the time limit for detention without trial the question of torture came up. Officially this was limited to the nice considerations of whether it was all right to send people to places where torture is used and whether Britain can use information collected by the use of torture in other countries. This discussion gave an impression of democratic Britain as the home of civilised behaviour where the very idea of torture is repugnant to our legislators – unlike, say, the US with its secret CIA jails… In reality, the British state has a long history of using and developing a whole range of torture techniques. … continue
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