Palestine

The halt to commercial shipments, including fruit and winter clothing, cuts off a key source of critical supplies.

Israeli authorities say no commercial goods have entered Gaza for two days, citing what they claim is a tax dispute between local merchants and Hamas.

COGAT, or the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories, the Israeli military body that “oversees humanitarian affairs” in Gaza, announced the halt on Wednesday.

COGAT claimed that local merchants “made the decision in response to a 10,000 shekel ($3,220) fee imposed by Hamas on each truck entering Gaza” as well as a demand for 30 percent of all sales in Gaza to be carried out in cash.

This decision is expected to impact a crucial source of food and goods for the 2.1 million people in the Strip, who are completely reliant on Israel’s border crossings in a territory that is still suffering from famine.

Gaza’s government media office refuted the claims on Thursday and condemned the “blatant disinformation campaign and false statement”.

The media office instead said it was an attempt “to hold the government apparatus in Gaza responsible for the disruption of truck entry” and that the fee was a voluntary payment to a fund providing aid for those in need, such as widows and orphans.

It also said that cash payments were encouraged due to what it described as an acute cash shortage in the war-torn territory, but were never a mandatory requirement.

An already dire humanitarian crisis

The halt to commercial shipments, including fruit and winter clothing, cuts off a key source of food and other critical supplies as fears mount ahead of the encroaching winter.

Aid groups generally bring in staples such as flour, while merchants import more perishable foods like fruits and meat, according to data released earlier this year by COGAT.

The suspension is raising fears about affordability, with humanitarian workers saying a combination of aid and a robust commercial market is needed to keep prices under control.

“The humanitarian sector on its own cannot meet the needs of all the people,” said Shaina Low, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Refugee Council. “The markets need to be functioning.”

Local merchants step in

The head of Gaza’s private truckers union, Nahed Sheheiber, denied the Israeli narrative, saying: “The Israeli coordinator is claiming that Gaza’s merchants are responsible, but the truth is that the Israelis are the ones who imposed the restrictions.”

Following COGAT’s announcement, Sheheiber’s union met with Gaza’s Ministry of Economy to express concern and say Israel was citing fees levied by the ministry as a pretext to cut off commercial goods.

A global hunger monitor in July warned that more than two-thirds of people in Gaza could face acute hunger by the year-end.

Israel is obliged under a US-mediated agreement to allow a minimum of 600 trucks carrying humanitarian aid to enter Gaza each day.

Diplomats say that far fewer than 600 trucks normally enter Gaza each day. Sheheiber said the figure was closer to 300, with two-thirds carrying commercial goods.

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip – For 11 days after giving birth last month, Rania Fadel could not hold her newborn son.

The 24-year-old gave birth to twin boys, Ilyas and Yahya, on September 25.

While Yahya was born healthy, Ilyas was admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, where he remained for nearly two weeks.

Born prematurely, Ilyas weighed just 1.4 kilogrammes (3 pounds) at birth, according to his mother. He had medical issues affecting his blood and lungs, she said, and needed specialised care in an incubator.

Rania herself was recovering from a Caesarean section when her son was taken into intensive care. For days, she could not hold him.

“When they called me to hold him, I rushed over,” she recalled. “I was in a hurry to get to him. It was such a feeling.”

As Ilyas’s condition improved and he moved from intensive care to the hospital’s neonatal care unit, Rania was able to hold him against her bare chest, introducing her to a form of care for low-birthweight newborns known as kangaroo mother care, part of a newly-launched programme at the hospital.

It involves prolonged skin-to-skin contact between a caregiver – ideally the mother – and baby, with exclusive breast milk feeding, and has been shown to have important health benefits for premature and low-birthweight babies.

“I was so happy. It was such a beautiful feeling,” Rania said.

During the session, a nurse helped Rania position Ilyas against her chest, with his skin touching hers. Rania said he remained there for about 90 minutes.

“He started breastfeeding from me, and he stayed a little longer,” she said. “I felt he was improving.”

For Rania, the contact also brought a sense of closeness after days of separation.

“The baby feels that his mother is there,” she said. “He feels safe. Honestly, it makes me very happy.”

Skin-to-skin

Kangaroo mother care involves placing a baby against a parent’s bare chest for skin-to-skin contact, alongside breastfeeding and appropriate medical care.

For premature and low-birthweight babies, it can help regulate body temperature, support breastfeeding and improve health outcomes.

World Health Organization (WHO) guidance says that kangaroo mother care has been shown to reduce neonatal mortality by 32 percent, and mortality by six months of age by 25 percent, compared with conventional care.

At Nasser Medical Complex, Khawla al-Madhoun, director of nursing at the hospital’s maternity and neonatal departments, described it as an integrated approach to newborn care that supports growth and strengthens the bond between mother and baby.

“When we place a baby on the mother’s chest, it helps the baby grow,” she said.

“We have seen babies who were unwell or underweight begin to grow faster with kangaroo care. This can help them leave the hospital sooner.”

The hospital has begun introducing kangaroo care through a pilot programme supported by WHO, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA). The agencies announced the initiative at Nasser Hospital in September, but the practice is being introduced gradually in its external neonatal care unit, where babies stay with their mothers, and in maternity wards after delivery.

Al-Madhoun said the team was also preparing a dedicated room and seeking equipment to make the sessions more comfortable.

The team aims for longer periods of skin-to-skin contact – WHO recommends at least eight hours per day – although its immediate target is at least two hours, depending on each family’s circumstances.

At Nasser, the team is currently prioritising babies who are medically stable and do not require oxygen support. Nurses monitor their vital signs and assess them throughout the process.

Al-Madhoun stressed that the technique cannot replace an incubator or other treatment when a baby needs intensive care.

“It can help babies grow, gain weight and leave the hospital earlier, but some babies need other interventions, such as respiratory support,” she said. “Those babies still need the incubator and the care it provides.”

Shortage of neonatal equipment

The need for specialised newborn care comes as Gaza’s health system continues to struggle with damaged facilities, shortages of equipment and overcrowded neonatal units.

Before Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, Gaza had eight neonatal intensive care units with a total of 178 incubators, according to UNICEF.

By November 2024, three of those units had been destroyed by Israel, and the number of available incubators had fallen to about 54, a reduction of 70 percent. The shortage of equipment, compounded by limited supplies of fuel and electricity as a result of Israeli restrictions, put premature newborns at serious risk.

Israeli strikes have continued since an October 2025 “ceasefire”. Despite this supposed truce, and despite the delivery of some new equipment, the shortage of incubators and other equipment has persisted.

In May, UNICEF said it and its partners had supplied incubators and ventilators to hospitals in Gaza, while warning that neonatal units were still managing large numbers of fragile infants with limited equipment, space and power.

The war in Gaza has worsened living conditions for pregnant women with economic hardship, food shortages, poor nutrition and the harsh realities of displacement, including cooking over open fires and carrying water.

“These conditions have contributed to the rise in premature births and babies born with low birth weight who need specialised neonatal care,” al-Madhoun said.

Meanwhile, repeated displacement and overcrowding have placed further pressure on hospitals, including Nasser Medical Complex, which is already struggling with limited space and shortages of incubators and other essential neonatal equipment.

Newborn in a tent

Linda Abu Nasira’s baby girl is only three days old.

The infant initially developed a fever, which has since subsided, according to 23-year-old Linda.

As her daughter was being treated and breastfed, Linda was learning how to hold her against her chest under the guidance of the medical team.

The sessions were brief. Linda said she held her daughter against her chest for about 30 minutes at a time, repeating the process roughly every two hours, according to the instructions she had received.

“She is a little better than yesterday,” Linda said. “Little by little.”

Away from the hospital, Linda lives in a tent in al-Mawasi, in Khan Younis, where she is raising her two older children – aged three and two – while caring for her newborn.

She described the conditions as difficult, particularly when it comes to securing food and drinking water.

“We try to manage,” she said. “But it is not like before, or like the conditions you would expect when giving birth.”

She does not know how long the baby will need to remain under observation in the hospital’s external neonatal care unit.

“As a mother, it means a lot to me to feel that I am helping my daughter recover,” Linda said. “I hope she will recover and be discharged as soon as possible.”

At least 350 Palestinian children currently face “harsh conditions” in Israeli prisons.

Israeli forces have detained more than 2,000 Palestinian children since October 2023, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society said.

In a report released on Wednesday, the Palestinian rights group said Israeli authorities continue to escalate their targeting of Palestinian children. At least 350 Palestinian children are currently facing “harsh conditions” in Israeli prisons.

On Tuesday, Israeli forces arrested at least six children from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the report said.

The organisation said information regarding the number of children arrested in Gaza is unclear, given the thousands of missing persons in the besieged Gaza Strip, including children, and the ongoing policy of enforced disappearance.

The group said Israel’s policy of detention without charges or a release date constitutes “an additional violation and crime that leaves children facing the unknown and deprives them of family and educational stability”.

Cases of Palestinian children in prison

The report described Israeli practices that begin with “intimidation and arrest” and extend to “torture, starvation and denial of healthcare”.

The group highlighted the case of 15-year-old Mohammed Hamid, who contracted scabies, a contagious skin infestation, while he was detained in Ofer Prison, where rights groups have long documented abuses. He suffered severe infections, underwent heart surgery and was admitted to intensive care in critical condition. He subsequently had one of his legs amputated.

The organisation also highlighted the case of 17-year-old Walid Ahmed, who died in March 2025 after six months in Megiddo Prison. In December, an Israeli judge halted the investigation into his death, stating that although there was evidence of starvation, no definitive cause of death had been established.

American children in Israeli prisons

Ahmed was imprisoned in Megiddo with his friend Mohammed Ibrahim, a teenager from Florida. Ibrahim was released after months of advocacy from US-based organisations and appeals from high-ranking lawmakers.

Mohammed Ibrahim was not the only young American held in Israeli prison without charge – Israeli forces reportedly took Abdalkareem Issa Ahmed Safi from his West Bank home in a late-night raid in June. He turned 18 in detention, and authorities subsequently moved him from a youth holding area into an adult section at Ofer Prison.

Similarly, Israeli forces arrested 16-year-old Adam Wajeh Abdelfattah Karakrah, also an American, in July. Although he was set for release in August after his family secured bail, Israeli authorities abruptly reversed the decision to free him.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society called for “real international action” to ensure the release of arbitrarily detained children, enforce investigations and end torture, starvation and the denial of treatment in Israeli prisons.

Israeli forces have detained more than 25,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, and thousands more in Gaza, since Israel’s genocidal war began in October 2023.

The woman’s young daughter was rescued from a large fire inside the apartment caused by the attack.

An Israeli air strike on an apartment block in Gaza has killed a woman and wounded two other people, hospital officials said.

Reem Asaad Awad, 33, was killed in the attack early on Wednesday in the Al-Rimal neighbourhood of Gaza City, the Turkish state news agency Anadolu reported, quoting a source at Al Shifa hospital.

The source said the strike caused extensive destruction to the targeted apartment and nearby buildings.

The daughter of the woman who was killed was rescued from a large fire that broke out after the attack.

Israel says it is investigating the strike and claims it targeted a member of Hamas, without providing evidence.

Reporting from Gaza City, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said the strike happened at 4am (01:00 GMT).

Israel has killed 1,501 Palestinians in Gaza since it agreed a “ceasefire” with the Palestinian group Hamas last October. The truce was part of a wider United States-backed proposal to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.

Talks aimed at advancing to the second phase of the US plan, which includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the disarmament of Hamas, have stalled.

The agreement states that 600 trucks of humanitarian aid are to be allowed into Gaza each day, but Israeli authorities have continued to impose severe restrictions on supplies entering the enclave, and reconstruction of the war-shattered territory has not begun.

Ramallah, occupied West Bank – Every day, Fuad Abu Salam sips his morning coffee outside his rented home in the Thinnabeh suburb, gazing at every detail of the sprawling Tulkarem refugee camp in front of him. This West Bank camp he can see in the distance once housed a two-storey building comprising four apartments, each measuring 300 square metres (3,229sq feet), in which he and his extended family lived.

After he was displaced from the camp, he, his wife, his four children, and his mother were confined to a small, rented apartment no bigger than 100sq metres (1,076sq feet) in Thinnabeh. His home in Tulkarem was partially destroyed when he left the camp.

Everything changed for Fuad and his family on January 21, 2025, when Israel launched a military assault in the occupied West Bank dubbed “Iron Wall”, initially targeting the Jenin refugee camp. A week later, the operation expanded to include the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps in the city of Tulkarem.

Israeli forces forcibly displaced the entire populations of the three camps during January and February 2025 and continue to prevent their return, the United Nations has said.

Mass displacement

Data from UNRWA cited in a report titled, Destruction of Palestinian Refugee Camps in the Northern West Bank, stated that 33,362 Palestinians remain forcibly displaced from the three camps. By October 2025, 52 percent of structures in the Jenin camp, 48 percent in the Nur Shams camp, and 36 percent in the Tulkarem camp had been destroyed or damaged.

The Israeli operation has affected hundreds of homes, roads, and infrastructure, including water and electricity networks, while humanitarian aid to the camps has been cut off.

Israeli forces killed 102 Palestinians, including 21 children, during the period covered, according to the report. This represents 46 percent of the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank during this period.

On Sunday, the Israeli Supreme Court ordered the government to provide a timeline for the return of displaced people to the three camps, setting November 23 as a deadline for a response.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich rejected the ruling, warning that the return of residents could allow for the reconstruction of what he termed “terror infrastructure”. He called on the government not to implement the decision.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz opposed the court’s intervention, asserting that the army’s continued presence in the camps was a security decision and stating his intention to maintain a military presence there.

Fuad, 42, a greenhouse installer, found himself forced to flee with all the camp’s other residents and more than 40 family members. But he and his neighbours carried with them the hope of returning home.

They moved between the homes of relatives, enduring harsh living conditions, until he finally settled in the Thinnabeh suburb of Tulkarem.

The neighbourhood, which overlooks the camp, has “restored his spirit” because he can see his home even if it’s from afar. Although he is unable to reach the building, he can gaze at it and imagine a time when he can return.

“If a decision were issued right now allowing us to return, I would go back immediately without a moment’s hesitation,” he said.

But his home is no longer what it used to be. It was partially demolished and set on fire by Israeli soldiers, rendering more than 80 percent of the apartment block uninhabitable. Fuad plans to use the rubble to rebuild his home.

“I will never waver in my resolve to return, even if it means pitching a tent over the ruins and living there,” he declared.

Mohamad Ararawi, 18, from the Jenin refugee camp, also saw his home razed to the ground with a wide road replacing it.

He told Al Jazeera that his family of 40, who had lived in a five-story building in the al-Damaj neighbourhood, all fled the camp when the Israeli military operation began, seeking shelter in homes belonging to other relatives.

“My mother, father, five sisters, and I took refuge in my brother’s unfinished apartment. We endured harsh conditions, suffering through biting cold and scorching heat, before gradually completing the construction until it became somewhat habitable,” he added.

Returning is all that matters to them, and they refuse to live anywhere but the camp, even if it lacks basic amenities.

A near-impossible return

Returning the displaced back to their homes is not merely an issue of clearing roads for residents. Returning would mean living in a camp in which infrastructure has been damaged and hundreds of homes destroyed, all amid a lack of necessities.

Nihad Shawish, a member of the Nur Shams Camp Popular Services Committee, told Al Jazeera that the scale of destruction makes the residents’ return fraught with immense difficulties, despite their will to go back to their homes.

Approximately 400 homes, most of them three to four stories high, were destroyed, he said, while about 100 homes were burned down during the Israeli army’s presence in the camp.

Even the ones that survived are not necessarily habitable; they sustained severe damage affecting doors, windows, and interior facilities. The collapse of some buildings has also damaged neighbouring homes.

Approximately 10,900 camp residents remain displaced, including families staying in private homes and others at a school in the Thinnabeh suburb.

Faisal Salameh, an official with the Tulkarem Camp Popular Committee, told Al Jazeera that more than 2,000 housing units were completely destroyed, while approximately 90 per cent of the camp’s homes sustained partial damage, rendering them uninhabitable.

“Israel has turned the camp into an environment that drives residents away, given the widespread destruction and the ban on reconstruction in certain areas that have been converted into roads,” he noted.

Despite these conditions, Salameh said that displaced residents are eager to return to the camp as soon as a decision by the Israeli government permits them to.

The camp was home to approximately 15,000 people. The majority of the displaced currently live in rented homes or with relatives, while others have sought shelter in schools, mosques, or makeshift tin shacks.

Israeli rejection

While the Israeli Supreme Court’s ruling opens the door to discussing the return of displaced persons to camps in the northern West Bank, its rejection by Israeli government ministers raises questions about whether it will be implemented. Until then, the lives of the displaced families remain in limbo.

Mohamad Halaseh, an expert on Israeli affairs, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli right-wing isn’t just trying to alter the structure of the judicial system, but also seeking to undermine its legitimacy and exert pressure on judges.

He explained that the effect of political stances is evident in the disregard for Supreme Court rulings. He cites the issue of Palestinian prisoner visitations, a case in which the state failed to comply with the court’s decisions, as one example of this.

“The continued disregard for court rulings undermines the judiciary’s ability to compel the government to act when judicial decisions conflict with the stance of the political leadership,” he said.

Several precedents make the implementation of court rulings on the camps unlikely, he said. This is particularly distressing for residents who also face strong Israeli political opposition to the return of Palestinians to the three camps.

“Declared political stances set a limit on the extent to which executive institutions comply with judicial rulings,” he said.

Israel has expanded its military occupation in the Gaza Strip in violation of a United States-brokered ‘ceasefire’, forcing Palestinians into an ever-smaller share of the besieged territory, devastated by Israel’s ongoing genocidal war.

Nearly two-thirds of Gaza is now under Israeli military control or subject to access restrictions.

The original ‘Yellow Line’, established under US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan to end the war, marked the area to which Israeli forces initially withdrew. They were expected to make further withdrawals gradually, but instead, they have seized more territory.

On Sunday, Israeli forces moved yellow concrete blocks dozens of metres west in Shujayea, a neighbourhood in southeastern Gaza City, forcing Palestinian families to flee and bringing more of the neighbourhood under Israeli military control.

“It’s not simply about where the ‘Yellow Line’ is today but where it can move next,” Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al-Khalili said, reporting from Gaza City. “For families who have been repeatedly displaced in the past three years, the situation remains dire, and they have to make the impossible decision of where they can go.”

More than 90 percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million population has been forcibly displaced by Israel’s war, launched on October 7, 2023, after Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel.

Using maps, Al Jazeera shows how much of Gaza Israel has grabbed since the ‘ceasefire’.

Gaza before the war

Before the war, Palestinians were spread across the Gaza Strip, a 365sq km (141sq-mile) territory roughly 41km (25 miles) long and from 6km to 12km (4 to 7 miles) wide.

That made it one of the most densely populated places on Earth with about 6,000 people per square kilometre, similar to Nairobi or London. Each person had, on average, about 160sq metres (1,722sq ft) of land.

Even then, not all of Gaza’s land was accessible. Israel enforced a buffer zone along the fence with Israel, and Palestinians who approached it risked being shot. In 2010, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that the restricted area covered 17 percent of Gaza’s land and 35 percent of its farmland.

Gaza has been under an Israeli land, air and sea blockade since 2007.

Gaza at the ‘ceasefire’

Under the first phase of the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces were to withdraw to the “Yellow Line” within 24 hours, after which a 72-hour period began for the handover of Israeli captives held in Gaza. Trump first published a map of the line on his Truth Social platform.

The line left Israel in control of 53 percent of the Strip, mostly farmland and border areas in the east, and confined Palestinians to the remaining 47 percent, about 172sq km (66sq miles).

By October 2025, two years of war had killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, and tens of thousands more had left the territory, reducing Gaza’s population to about 2.1 million.

Pushed into less than half of Gaza’s territory under the “ceasefire”, its density doubled to about 12,000 people per square kilometre, comparable to New York City. Each person was left with about 82sq metres (883sq ft).

Gaza today

Since the “ceasefire”, Israeli forces have repeatedly moved the yellow concrete blocks marking the “Yellow Line” farther west, sometimes overnight, expanding the areas under their control. Satellite imagery has also documented continued demolitions in areas held by Israeli forces.

The research group Forensic Architecture estimated that Israel controlled 58 percent of Gaza by December. In March, the Israeli military sent aid agencies maps of a new “orange line”, a restricted zone beyond the “Yellow Line” where humanitarian movements must be coordinated with the army.

According to OCHA, restrictions now cover 65 percent of Gaza. Israel itself said it controls about 70 percent of the territory, a UN official told the Security Council in June.

That leaves 2.1 million people in about 35 percent of the Strip, roughly 128sq km (49sq miles). The population density has nearly tripled since before the war to about 16,000 people per square kilometre, close to central Tokyo.

Each person now has about 61sq metres (657sq ft) of land for everything: shelter, roads, schools, hospitals and farmland.

Unlike Tokyo, Gaza has little space left to house its people. The UN Satellite Centre, UNOSAT, found 82 percent of structures in the Strip are damaged or destroyed. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says only 3 percent of Gaza’s cropland is both undamaged and accessible.

OCHA says the remaining 35 percent of Gaza is “already overcrowded” and access restrictions are a key obstacle as aid groups try to relocate families before the rainy season. More than 950,000 people live in displacement sites at risk of flooding, according to the UN, most of them in tents and makeshift shelters, as seen in the satellite image below.

Approaching the ‘Yellow Line” can be deadly. Israel treats areas beyond it as a free-fire zone, and Palestinians who come near it have been shot. Nearly 1,500 people have been killed across Gaza since the ceasefire was announced.

Documentary draws on 24 anonymous Israeli sources accusing military of killing Palestinians in Gaza using AI systems.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for an investigation into the anonymous sources featured in a documentary alleging that Israel’s military killed civilians in Gaza using AI-powered targeting systems.

The award-winning film, NAZA, draws on testimony from 24 unnamed Israeli military whistleblowers accusing the army of using the systems to kill numerous civilians in the besieged territory.

“I demand that the chief of general staff, the head of the Shin Bet, and the attorney general launch a comprehensive investigation into the participants in the film ‘Naza’ and prosecute them for serious information security violations, criminal libel, and harm to Israel’s diplomatic and security interests,” Netanyahu said on X on Saturday evening.

“The film presents a false, misleading, and biased narrative that defames the State of Israel and the [Israeli military] internationally, severely damaging Israel’s standing,” he added.

In a statement last month, the Israeli military said it “categorically” rejected the whistleblowers’ allegations, calling some of their assertions “absurd’ and contradictory.

It insisted that the selection and approval of strikes “are made by human personnel only”, in line with the military’s guidelines.

Israeli army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir has called for legal action against the participants to be considered and ordered an investigation into suspected leaks of classified military information used in the film’s production.

NAZA takes its name from the Israeli military term for civilian casualties expected in air strikes, an abbreviated form of the Hebrew phrase for “collateral damage”.

The film was awarded a special jury prize at the Venice International Film Festival and received a historic 25-minute standing ovation.

It has also triggered a political storm in Israel.

The film’s directors, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, have been accused of “treason”. Netanyahu and Culture Minister Miki Zohar have threatened to revoke their Israeli citizenship.

Last week, the head of Israel’s National Public Diplomacy Directorate, Tzipi Hotovely, awarded the creators of another film, NAZA: The Real Story, certificates of recognition for countering the “blood libels” made in the original NAZA film.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, NAZA: The Real Story features testimony from soldiers refuting the original claims.

In contrast, 43 Israeli rights groups defended the filmmakers of NAZA and denounced the threats being directed at them, according to Israel’s Channel 12 news.

Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, after Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, and other Palestinian groups attacked southern Israel, killing 1,139 people and taking about 240 captive.

Since then, Israel has killed at least 74,000 Palestinians, including at least 21,000 children, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.

Zack Polanski calls for internal rule reforms to give party leaders greater control over policy after Zionism vote.

Zack Polanski, the leader of the United Kingdom’s Green Party, has proposed a potential overhaul of his party’s democratic mechanisms, calling for the leader to have larger control over strategic direction.

The appeal came in an article published in The Guardian on Sunday after party members passed a motion declaring that Zionism is racism at their annual conference on October 4 in a divisive vote.

Polanski also failed to grab a parliamentary seat in the wake of the row with Israel in a by-election.

The Labour Party won the election for the parliamentary seat vacated by former leader Keir Starmer in Holborn and St Pancras on Friday, fending off a strong challenge from the left-wing Green Party in a boost for British Prime Minister Andy Burnham.

“Our party democracy must now evolve to meet that – creating wider engagement for members, giving leaders more responsibility to set the party’s strategic direction, and making our processes as robust and accessible as possible,” he wrote.

“Above all, that unity must be deployed in the service of changing this country for the better,” the Green Party leader added.

Criticism over vote on motion

Polanski also replied to the criticisms of him for not participating in the vote on the motion on Zionism.

“I have been asked why I was not present for the vote. The answer is that my priority was fighting a hugely consequential by-election for our party,” he said, adding that he put all his “energy into the race in Holborn and St Pancras”.

He admitted that some members feel “let down” by his decision not to make an appearance there.

The Green Party’s motion, which called for “Palestinian liberation, the right of return, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), and a full arms embargo against Israel” was criticised by Jewish groups, other parties and most Green Party MPs.

After conceding defeat in the fiercely contested by-election, Polanski answered his critics, saying he would stay on as leader.

He was barred from entering Israel after his party backed a motion to define Zionism as racism.

Hebron, occupied West Bank – Badr al-Tamimi, 60, lives in Hebron’s Old City, where Israeli checkpoints, iron gates and road closures turn the simplest tasks into a dispiriting daily ordeal for Palestinian residents.

The situation goes beyond mere restrictions on movement. Israel has created a ghost town in parts of Hebron, where residents feel they are being driven out. This is most pronounced in an area known as H2, where Israel has complete control and Palestinians are subject to the dictates of the military.

A few days ago, Israeli authorities installed three iron gates across a 200-metre (656-foot) stretch of Hebron’s Old City – amounting to just 0.2 dunams (200 square metres) – as part of Israel’s apparent attempts to restrict Palestinians’ freedom to move around the city.

Hebron Mayor Yousef al-Jabari told Al Jazeera that one gate was erected on al-Zahid Road, the only route accessible to vehicles reaching the Old City entrance. A second was placed at the start of al-Shalala Street, which leads to shops connecting to the Bab al-Zawiya area in the city centre. A third towers over another section of al-Shalala Street, a thoroughfare used by pedestrians to access the shopping area.

They are part of a wider web of travel restrictions across the occupied West Bank, but Hebron, which has a strong settler presence, has suffered more than most Palestinian cities.

Approximately 40 percent of the 89 checkpoints in the West Bank and 11 percent of all 925 movement obstacles are located in the H2 area of Hebron, which is under tight Israeli control, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

About 7,000 Palestinians in an area of Hebron where hundreds of settlers live are affected by the latest travel restrictions. Since October 2023, when the genocidal war on Gaza began, only Palestinians with specific identification numbers could enter this area. Checkpoints at the entrance to this zone are generally only open from 7am to 8pm.

Al-Tamimi, who lives in the al-Sheikh neighbourhood adjacent to the city’s famed Ibrahimi Mosque, owns a shop in the Old City.

Palestinians can be kept waiting for hours at the checkpoints, and the mood of a soldier manning one can decide the commute time of a Palestinian. Worshippers attempting to enter the Ibrahimi Mosque can be held up for hours by soldiers.

“They might allow a limited number of people to enter while others are forced to wait, whereas resident movement comes to a halt during incursions, Jewish holidays, and the associated security measures,” he added.

Repeated closures have paralysed economic activity in Hebron, making it increasingly difficult for shops and companies to do business.

“Our presence in the Old City is a matter of steadfastness, not the availability of the elements needed for economic life,” al-Tamimi said.

Even after Israel’s occupation of the city in 1967, Hebron was once a bustling city with lively shops and markets. Residents could move more freely between neighbourhoods, which helped with economic life in the city.

Things changed in 1994, the year of the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre, when a US-born Israeli settler murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers.

From that point, the Old City’s geography changed, becoming isolated from its surroundings, al-Tamimi said.

He points to Shuhada Street, once a vital artery for transport and commerce in the city before road closures and restrictions transformed the area’s reality.

“They committed the crime, yet they continue to punish us for it,” he said.

In 1997, the Hebron Protocol was signed between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel, dividing the city into two zones: H1, which was under relative Palestinian jurisdiction, and H2 – an area which includes the Old City, the Ibrahimi Mosque, and illegal settlements – remained under Israeli security control.

Issa Amro, coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements group, said Israeli prohibitions intensified with the outbreak of the second Intifada in 2000 when Hebron became a centre of the uprising.

During this period, vast areas of the city were sealed off, shops were forced to close, and residents often remained confined to their homes or neighbourhoods.

Since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began on October 7, 2023, the number of checkpoints has risen to 32, while other obstacles impeding Palestinian movement now exceed 130.

The “closed zones”, designated by Israeli authorities as areas of military activity with restricted access to Palestinians, have expanded around the Ibrahimi Mosque and the illegal settlements that lie in the heart of the city.

“The movement restrictions are effectively holding residents as hostages,” Amro said.

Mayor al-Jabari said approximately 10,000 Palestinians in the Old City and the surrounding closed zones are affected by these measures.

Some parts of Hebron are inaccessible to vehicles, and Palestinian residents are subject to curfews two or three days a week, usually over the weekend.

He believes these restrictions are aimed at hindering Palestinians’ ability to return home and stifle life in parts of Hebron.

Meanwhile, Israeli authorities have helped settlers expand in the area, imposing a new suffocating reality for Palestinians in the city.

Al-Jabari said Israel’s current government could be doing this to curry favour with settlers ahead of this month’s election.

Control of Hebron, its Old City, and the Ibrahimi Mosque is a key issue for settlers, and politicians in this group occupy key posts in the Israeli government.

This has coincided with a concerted effort by Israeli authorities to cement the settler presence in and around the city.

“The seizure of buildings and land, along with the installation of gates, is a continuation of Israeli policies that have been in place for decades,” al-Jabari said.

“These include the closure of Shuhada Street and the shutting down of over 500 shops, as well as the establishment of settlement outposts and military positions within the Old City.”

He has seen more restrictions on Palestinians’ freedom of movement over the past month, measures that will undoubtedly appease settlers.

Hebron municipality has responded to this by filing lawsuits in Israeli courts, despite its scepticism about the impartiality of the judiciary.

With these measures continuing, life for Palestinians is getting worse, making work, life and education a daily struggle.

Israel cites the security situation as a pretext for erecting more checkpoints and iron gates in Hebron, but there are no such restrictions on settlers.

Since 2015, Israel has limited the number of Palestinian residents of closed zones who can pass through these checkpoints. Students and teachers frequently have their bags searched by Israeli soldiers or are detained.

Ayat al-Jabari, a 40-year-old science teacher, worked for a year at Qurtuba School, located near the closed Shuhada Street, before transferring to her current position at Al-Fayha School, near the Ibrahimi Mosque.

Although reaching Qurtuba School from her home should have been a five-minute journey, it often took an hour.

On her unsettling morning route through a nearby cemetery, often in darkness during the winter months, settlers and soldiers often appear in the graveyard to block the path of Palestinians or abuse them.

“Every day, I was forced to take a long route and walk through a cemetery to avoid passing the checkpoint, as I don’t hold a [special identification card] number. Even those who do hold numbers are sometimes forced to take this path to escape the soldiers’ moods,” she said.

After moving to Al-Fayha School, al-Jabari hoped her commute would improve, but the situation is no better than before.

“Whenever Jewish holidays arrive, these schools are closed because all the students live in areas subjected to a total lockdown, to the point where residents are even forbidden from opening their front doors,” she said.

As Israel entered the final month before its October 27 election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a chilling warning to share.

Israel’s enemies, he said on September 29, were plotting an attack on the country before the vote. Without providing any evidence, he then quickly referred to continuing attacks by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, where he said they had killed more than 100 “terrorists” in recent weeks.

That link drawn by Netanyahu – between the genocidal war on Gaza that began after the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 attacks, the upcoming elections, and Israel’s national security – was not coincidental, say analysts.

Netanyahu’s insistence that he alone can secure Israelis from a range of threats they face from across the country’s borders, they say, lies at the heart of his re-election campaign, even as his alleged failures during the attack three years ago and in securing the quick release of captives have offered his opponents ammunition.

When a Flydubai flight packed with Israeli passengers on their way from Dubai to Tel Aviv a day after his recent warning nearly crashed after a co-pilot attacked his pilot with an axe in the cockpit, Netanyahu was quick to seize on the incident to argue that he is still man for the country’s top job.

Polls suggest that he faces a stiff test in what is the first general vote since the 2023 attacks, which led to the killing of 1,139 people in Israel and triggered the genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, where Israeli have attacks have since killed more than 74,000 Palestinians.

Three years later, the war has become inseparable from the domestic debate over Israel’s direction while also accelerating a political shift to the right – with once-fringe positions on Palestinians now very much the mainstream view.

Few embody this transformation more than Israel’s far-right financial Minister Bezalel Smotrich, sanctioned by a number of Western countries and known for his incendiary and racist language and policies towards Palestinians.

In one of his characteristically inflammatory statements, Smotrich told Israeli outlet Ynet late last month that the Israeli army should “go to war” in the occupied West Bank and “do there what we did in Gaza”.

Less than two weeks later, Smotrich’s electoral ally Moshe Feiglin added fuel to the fire.

“The enemy is Gaza, not Hamas”, he told the Jerusalem Post, calling for the annexation of the besieged territory after the election. “The baby that will be born tomorrow in Gaza will do exactly the same,” he said, in reference to the 2023 attacks.

Palestinian political analyst Ahmed Najar said these are not “stray comments” from marginal figures but an electoral message from power-seeking politicians aimed at portraying Palestinians as “not a people with rights, but a demographic and security problem to be expelled, conquered or destroyed”.

He added: “The frightening reality is that the coming election risks becoming a competition not over whether Palestinian life should be protected, but over who can promise to erase it most aggressively.”

‘This is madness’

Following October 7, the younger generation in particular slid rightwards, said Ahron Bregman, an Israeli security analyst and senior teaching fellow at King’s College London.

He said the forces driving Israel to the right had been gathering for decades.

“The trend toward the right began after the Yom Kippur War in 1973, but it has intensified dramatically since October 7,” Bregman told Al Jazeera, referring to the bloody 19-day October War, or the 1973 Arab-Israeli War – a conflict between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Egypt and Syria.

More recently, the far right has been emboldened through electoral politics as part of Netanyahu’s government since 2022 – the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

Another outspoken cabinet member alongside Smotrich is Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right provocateur who has previously been convicted of inciting racism and of supporting a terrorist organisation.

“Netanyahu’s greatest mistake – among many – was bringing figures like Ben-Gvir and Smotrich into his coalition,” said Bergman. “By doing so, he legitimised them as influential forces in Israeli politics.”

Ben-Gvir has been so cemented into Israel’s political system, he has hopes pinned on becoming the next Israeli defence minister, the analyst pointed out.

“This is madness. But that’s contemporary Israel,” said Bergman.

Analysts also pointed out that several parties running, including ones that are currently in power and a number that are challenging the current coalition, all advocate for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, as one of the examples of the shift to the right.

Omar Baddar, director of Palthink for Strategic Studies, said the messaging from across the Israeli political and military spectrum in the lead-up to the election shows that there is “a consensus” to continue the attacks on Gaza, where nearly 1,500 have been killed since a “ceasefire” last year.

“They’re using the threats to get more votes,” he said, pointing out to what he described as the radicalisation of the society.

With the election approaching, added Baddar, Israeli leaders are seeking to undo one another: “Who[ever]’s more radical is more likely to get more votes.”

As Ehab Jabareen, a Palestinian political analyst and researcher from inside Israel, writes, “what it means to be ‘right-wing’ in Israel today is above all to take a harder line on Palestinian national claims, security and territorial control.”

He adds: “On security and the Palestinians, a large part of Jewish Israeli politics already works from assumptions that would have been treated as right-wing a generation ago: Deep suspicion of a sovereign Palestinian state, a high tolerance for prolonged military control, and a stronger insistence on Jewish sovereignty as the starting point rather than one value among others.”

Observers and rights groups say the disparity is even evident in the electoral process. A prominent politician and Palestinian citizen of Israel, Sami Abu Shehadeh, has been forced to withdraw from the election over his remarks about the Gaza war, while Israeli far-right leaders have remained untouched despite their violent rhetoric against Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s security credentials endure

Recent polling indicates that the events of October 7 are top of mind for Israelis, who also have questions about who was responsible for the security failures of that day.

Just last month, reports surfaced indicating that Netanyahu had received two separate warnings about an imminent Hamas attack in 2023, from Egypt’s intelligence chief, Abbas Kamel, and United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

Netanyahu’s two main rivals in the race for prime minister have cited the alleged warnings to call the prime minister “unfit” to remain at the helm of the country.

But Netanyahu has denied suggestions that he had been forewarned about the attack, and the reports do not appear to have had a significant effect on opinion polls.

While October 7 represents a profound rupture in Israelis’ sense of security, public trust in the Netanyahu government had already been badly shaken by its controversial judicial overhaul, introduced when the prime minister’s current coalition first came to power, said Mairav Zonszein, an Israel-Palestine analyst at the International Crisis Group based in Tel Aviv.

Despite these breaches of trust, the Israeli leader retains support.

“Israelis in general still see Netanyahu as kind of the guy on security. And more to the point, they don’t really see an alternative,” Zonszein told Al Jazeera.

A June survey by Mitvim – the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies found that the Israeli public supports its government’s military and security solutions, and rejects resolving the Palestinian issue and ending the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory. This is the case even while it has been concerned about international isolation and the decline of Israel’s international standing since the beginning of the genocidal war on Gaza, the survey reported.

Yet Israelis are also increasingly war-weary, even as they back the use of more force. Its troops – stretched between six fronts of war in the last few years – are bearing the brunt of this fatigue in Israeli society.

Israel’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that nearly 30,000 soldiers and security personnel are facing psychological trauma since the war.

The ministry said its rehabilitation department’s budget has increased by 88 percent over the past three years to 10 billion shekels ($3.3m), with the majority supporting treatment for mental health conditions and post-traumatic stress disorder.

As Israel expands, the two-state solution fades

Still, Israel in recent months has been more and more vocal about its expansionist vision, with officials brazenly stating the goal of “Greater Israel”. The claim for the conquest is based on a biblical verse (Genesis 15:18-21).

For decades, Israel has ignored international law in its continuous occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land, and has shown little respect for its neighbours’ sovereignty, occupying more land in Syria, as well as in Lebanon in more recent years.

According to Najar, the political economist, the “complete dehumanisation” of Palestinians as evidenced during the campaign reveal that Gaza “is being presented to Israeli voters not as a catastrophe or a crime for which there must be accountability, but as a blueprint to be repeated elsewhere”.

In southern Lebanon, where Israel has been carrying out near daily attacks and and has occupied large swathes of land, residents have told Al Jazeera they expect little to change even if Netanyahu is defeated in the election.

Netanyahu’s main political challenger, Gadi Eisenkot – head of the Yashar party and former army chief of staff – is the father of the so-called Dahiyeh Doctrine, and is just as hawkish about expansion. That doctrine, since Israel’s war with the Lebanese group Hezbollah in 2006, calls for the use of huge force, even against civilian infrastructure, as a deterrent against enemies and was deployed in Israel’s recent wars, particularly in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

If it were up to Eisenkot, the Lebanon front of war would have never scaled down: He has accused Netanyahu of bowing to US pressure to halt operations in Beirut, and has insisted that the military should be able to attack Hezbollah anywhere in Lebanon.

For Israelis still reeling from the events of October 7, Eisenkot could fill the security void many are feeling, said Zonszein.

“They really … see the world as kind of very hostile towards them, the world not understanding what they went through on October 7, and [therefore why] the need to have these security buffer zones in Lebanon, in Syria, and Gaza,” she said.

A two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict is therefore out of the question, said the analysts – and has not even made a blip of an appearance in campaigning before the election.

The idea first emerged during the Oslo Accords more than 30 years ago, which set out a negotiating process aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, predicated on the belief that the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel was imperative to forge peace.

But since the Oslo process began in 1993, the number of Israeli settlers in the West Bank has ballooned from about 260,000 to more than 700,000, embedded deep inside West Bank areas that would be needed for a contiguous Palestinian state.

“The concept of a two-state solution is currently irrelevant and likely will remain so for another decade or two, if not longer,” said Bergman. “It is unlikely to become a reality in the foreseeable future, as no Israeli leader can propose it to the Israeli public after the events of October 7.”

The only way it could regain prominence is if there is substantial international pressure, including severe sanctions on Israel, and a non-violent intifada, or an uprising by Palestinians, he said.

The outright rejection of Palestinian statehood has simply become much more “acceptable”, said Zonszein.

“There’s several parties who advocate these views, whereas there isn’t a single Jewish Zionist Party that puts the need for a two-state solution or a Palestinian political process at the forefront,” she said.

Taken all together, Israel’s election appears less a demand for change than a further entrenchment of the jingoism that surged after October 7, 2023.

“[There’s] more and more movement towards more military force, more need for pushing the borders … out of a lot of fear that another October 7 could happen,” said Zonszein.