Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) are continuing, for the second day in a row, a large-scale assault on the town of Qabatiya, south of Jenin in the northern occupied West Bank, accompanied by measures of collective punishment affecting the civilian population as a whole.
The IOF have imposed a comprehensive curfew on the town, alongside repeated raids on homes, the destruction of their contents, the bulldozing of streets, and severe damage to civilian infrastructure, including the closure of main access roads with earth mounds. Additional military reinforcements have been deployed, with armoured vehicles spreading through residential neighbourhoods, further restricting residents’ movement and exposing them to escalating humanitarian risks.
The violations have included the arrest of a number of civilians, among them relatives of the perpetrator of an operation carried out inside the Green Line, as well as the interrogation of members of his family. The family home was converted into a military outpost, and civilian youths were taken there and subjected to abuse. These measures have been carried out in blatant disregard of the principle of individual criminal responsibility, a cornerstone of international criminal justice.
Such practices fall within the framework of collective punishment, which is explicitly prohibited under Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, banning the punishment of protected persons for acts they did not personally commit. The Convention also prohibits the destruction of private property except where rendered absolutely necessary by military operations; a condition that does not apply to the sweeping and indiscriminate measures targeting entire neighbourhoods and their infrastructure.
The imposition of a total curfew, mass arrests, and the destruction of homes and roads constitute violations of fundamental rights that are not subject to arbitrary restriction, foremost among them freedom of movement, the right to adequate housing, the right to human dignity, and protection from cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Targeting families on the basis of kinship likewise amounts to prohibited collective discrimination.
The Qabatiya operation comes within a sustained escalation that has been ongoing since 21 January 2025, during which the occupation has expanded its military operations across the northern West Bank, from Jenin refugee camp to the camps of Nur Shams and Tulkarm, accompanied by tight sieges and widespread destruction of infrastructure, homes, and shops. This has resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, in clear violation of the prohibition on forcible transfer of populations under international humanitarian law.
In parallel, policies aimed at altering the demographic and legal reality of the West Bank have intensified through home demolitions, forced displacement, and settlement expansion, undermining the right to self-determination and threatening the legal foundations of any settlement based on international law, including the principle of the inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by force.
What is unfolding in Qabatiya reflects a recurring pattern of grave violations that cannot be justified by broad security claims and demands international legal accountability. The protection of civilians in occupied territories is a non-derogable legal obligation, and any breach constitutes a serious violation giving rise to international responsibility. This necessitates the immediate cessation of punitive measures, the guarantee of effective remedies for victims, and full respect for international law without selectivity.
