Israeli forces raid Palestinian NGOs in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces have raided the offices of two Palestinian nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) and the courtyard of the Palestine Medical Complex in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli forces searched the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees and the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association in the city of Ramallah on Tuesday.

Israeli snipers were also deployed around the entrances to the Palestine Medical Complex in Ramallah, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

The hospital is the largest government medical facility in the West Bank.

Reporting from Ramallah, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said Israeli forces were confiscating equipment belonging to Addameer, an NGO that focuses on prisoner rights.

“Israeli forces have been raiding one of the compounds that belong to Addameer. The NGO has been closed before by the Israeli forces. It has been deemed by the Israeli army and establishment as a terrorist organisation,” Ibrahim said.

“This is a daylight raid that is happening in the centre of Ramallah, causing a lot of panic. Palestinians [currently] have children at school. Others have [relatives] at work. People are worried because they know Israeli forces can open fire on them. Earlier, that happened: Israeli forces fired stun grenades at journalists covering this raid.”

Al Jazeera Arabic also reported that a journalist was injured after Israeli forces fired tear gas during the attacks. Israeli forces detained another four journalists in Hebron, according to Wafa. Photojournalists Hazem Badr, Musa Qawasmi, Musab Shawar, and Mamoun Wazwaz were detained east of Idnha town and blocked from completing their reporting assignments.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that a child was injured by Israeli live ammunition and several others had suffered from suffocation due to the ongoing raids in Ramallah and el-Bireh.

The raid on the NGOs is the latest act in an Israeli campaign of aggression against Palestinian civil society organisations.

In 2021, Israel designated six Palestinian organisations, including Addameer and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees, as “terrorist” organisations.

At the time, the Israeli Ministry of Defence claimed that the organisations used activism as a cover but “in practice belong and constitute an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the main activity of which is the ‘liberation of Palestine’ and destruction of Israel”.

Founded in 1991, Addameer works to support Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli and Palestinian prisons, offering free legal aid and advocating their rights at the national and international level, according to its mission statement.

The Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was founded in 1980 to empower Palestinian women on all levels and to “contribute to the Palestinian national struggle against the Israeli military’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories”, according to its Facebook page.