RAMALLAH: Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced on Monday the “extremely precarious” situation of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing Zionist entity military operation in the occupied West Bank. According to the United Nations, some 40,000 residents have been displaced since January 21, when the Zionist entity army launched an operation targeting Palestinian armed groups in the north of the territory.

The West Bank, occupied by the Zionist entity since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Zionist entity citizens living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

The Zionist entity’s operation started two days after a truce agreement came into effect in the Gaza Strip between the Zionist entity’s military and Palestinian group Hamas. The situation of the displaced Palestinians is “extremely precarious”, said MSF, which is operating in the area. Palestinians “are without proper shelter, essential services, and access to healthcare”, the NGO said. “The mental health situation is alarming.”

In a statement to AFP, the Zionist military (IDF) said it had been operating “against all terrorist organizations, including Hamas, in a complex security reality”. “The IDF follows international law and takes feasible precautions to mitigate harm to uninvolved individuals,” the statement said. MSF said the scale of forced displacement and destruction of camps “has not been seen in decades” in the West Bank. “People are unable to return to their homes as (Zionist) forces have blocked access to the camps, destroying homes and infrastructure,” said MSF Director of Operations Brice de la Vingne. “The entity must stop this, and the humanitarian response needs to be scaled up.”

Dubbed “Iron Wall”, the entity’s operation is primarily targeting three refugee camps — Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams — and defense minister Israel Katz said in February it would last several months. “I have instructed (the soldiers) to prepare for a prolonged stay in the evacuated camps for the coming year, and not to allow the return of their residents or the resurgence of terrorism,” he said in a statement.

West Bank Palestinians hekd in Zionist prisons have not been spared. The Palestinian Prisoners Club advocacy group said Monday that a teenage inmate died in a Zionist entity jail, decrying a spike in custody deaths since the start of the Gaza war. In a statement, the group announced the death of Walid Khaled Abdullah Ahmad, 17, in Meggido prison in the north of the entity in unknown circumstances. Contacted by AFP, Zionist entity prison authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment. One of thousands of Palestinians in the entity’s custody, Ahmad is the 63rd Palestinian inmate to die in Zionist entity jails since the October 2023 outbreak of the Gaza war, according to the Prisoners Club. 

The advocacy group said Ahmad, from the town of Silwad near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, was detained on September 30. It was not clear what had led to his arrest. The Prisoners Club said that a “growing number” of detainees have died in Zionist entity custody due to “systematic abuses” throughout the Gaza war. “This period has been the deadliest in the history of the Palestinian prisoners’ movement since 1967,” it said, referring to the year the Zionist entity seized Palestinian territories including the West Bank in a war.

Rights groups including the Zionist entity’s B’Tselem have documented numerous cases of deaths of Palestinians in Zionist entity prisons during the Gaza war. B’Tselem has reported worsening detention conditions for Palestinians including “systematic mistreatment” and “torture” — which Zionist entity authorities have denied.

The Prisoners Club said in September there were at least 250 Palestinian minors in Zionist entity custody. According to non-government group Defense for Children International Palestine, “each year approximately 500-700 Palestinian children, some as young as 12 years old, are detained and prosecuted in the (Zionist entity’s) military court system. The most common charge is stone-throwing.” — AFP