Palestinian National Initiative Secretary-General Mustafa Barghouti stated Thursday that Israeli forces have fractured the occupied West Bank into “fragmented prisons,” while rampant settler violence has transformed the territory into a “battlefield,” according to Anadolu Agency.
In a press statement, Barghouti detailed how the Israeli military has dissected the territory with over 1,300 checkpoints—most of them closed—effectively isolating cities and towns from one another. He warned that these severe movement restrictions have paralyzed economic activity, education, and healthcare services across the region.
The official highlighted that these closures coincide with near-daily military raids across all West Bank governorates, mass arrest campaigns, ongoing home demolitions, and the systematic prevention of Palestinian farmers from accessing their lands during the critical olive harvest season.
“The Israeli occupation employs settler terror gangs as a spearhead for settlement expansion,” Barghouti asserted. He added that these groups continue to assault towns, villages, and cities, creating an environment where “terror never stops.”
Barghouti argued that the objective of this “settler terror campaign” is to displace Palestinians from the majority of their land, realizing what he termed the “Zionist expansionist dream” of annexation, Judaization, and displacement. He emphasized that the resilience of the Palestinian people and the popular committees confronting these forces remain the sole barrier preventing the full execution of this plan.
The Palestinian official called on the international community to cease ignoring Israeli violations, urging concrete measures—including sanctions and a comprehensive boycott of the occupation and settlement enterprise, encompassing the Israeli government—to bolster Palestinian steadfastness.
Violence perpetrated by Israeli settlers and soldiers against Palestinians and their property has intensified significantly during the current olive harvest season. Palestinian estimates indicate approximately 750,000 settlers currently reside in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, across 194 settlements and roughly 400 outposts. International law considers all Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory illegal.