Israeli forces arrest & kill Palestinians as Trump lifts sanctions on far-right settlers

Pro-Israel lobbyists say Donald Trump was “the greatest president ever for Israel” in his first term as US leader. And as he starts his second term, he’s wasted no time in bolstering the settler-colonial project. Because amid a shaky ceasefire giving Palestinians in Gaza a brief pause from genocide, he has lifted sanctions on “far-right Israeli settler groups and individuals” responsible for attacking Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Even the Jerusalem Post used those words (though not in its actual article).

Understanding Trump’s complete support for Israeli actions, occupation forces and their settler allies have attacked Palestinians despite the Gaza ceasefire.

Settler-colonial violence continues during ceasefire

Elsewhere in the West Bank, Al Jazeera confirmed video footage circulating which showed Israeli occupation forces “rounding up” over 60 Palestinian people in a raid in Azzun, near Qalqilya. The outlet added that:

The Israeli military has said it intends to launch major operations in the West Bank

#شاهد
مشاهد جديدة.. لحظة اعتقال جنود الاحتلال أكثر من 60 فلسطينياً في بلدة عزون شرق قلقيلية. pic.twitter.com/ndFhSpcwMI

— المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام (@PalinfoAr) January 20, 2025

Also near Qalqilya, in Jinasfut and Funduq, Israeli settlers played their role in intimidating Palestinians. Al Jazeera explained that they had “set vehicles and properties on fire under the protection of Israeli forces”. Across the West Bank, settlers injured “at least 21 Palestinians”.

During the genocide in Gaza, ethnic cleansing has intensified in the West Bank, with Reuters describing “growing violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the West Bank and land grabs in the occupied territory”.

#Ceasefire? Not in the West Bank
Tonight, dozens of settlers are attacking Palestinian villages across the West Bank.
In the village of Sinjil – Settlers set fire to two homes and at least four vehicles.
In the village of Ein Siniya – Settlers attacked and set fire to homes.
In… pic.twitter.com/nZ24wiEK5B

— Yesh Din English (@Yesh_Din) January 19, 2025

The United Nations expressed concern about the occupying force’s increasing repression in the West Bank:

.@OHCHR_Palestine is alarmed by a wave of renewed violence perpetrated by settlers and Israeli security forces in the Occupied #WestBank, coinciding with the implementation of the Gaza ceasefire agreement and the release of hostages and detainees. This has been accompanied by…

— UN Human Rights Palestine (@OHCHR_Palestine) January 20, 2025

Israel also killed a 12-year-old in Gaza, while opening fire on someone trying to reach them. This was a violation of the ceasefire agreement.

https://twitter.com/palinfoen/status/1881636604814471584

Trump may give Israel control ‘from the river to the sea’

People in illegal settlements in the West Bank hope that Trump will push for full Israeli control of the occupied territory they refer to as Judea and Samaria. Far-right figures in Israel and the US support this idea. And they have been laying the linguistic groundwork for years.

Just as Trump has now unilaterally renamed the Gulf of Mexico the ‘Gulf of America’, it seems like only a matter of time before his heavily pro-Israel administration unilaterally renames the West Bank of Palestine as ‘Judea and Samaria’.

Decades ago, the Likud party of current war-criminal prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said:

Judea and Samaria will not be handed to any foreign administration; between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.

Biden may have given a green light for Israel to commit genocide, but Trump may well provide Israel’s settler-colonial regime with the support it needs to take a big step towards complete control of Palestine, from the river to the sea.

Featured image via screengrab