Israel turned West Bank into 'prisons', 'battlefield': Barghouti
16:34, 22/10/2026, Thursday
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Mustafa Barghouti said Israeli forces have transformed the occupied West Bank into 'fragmented prisons' through a network of more than 1,300 military checkpoints, warning that ongoing occupier violence has turned the territory into a battlefield aimed at driving Palestinians from their land.
Fragmentation and Checkpoints
Mustafa Barghouti, secretary-general of the Palestinian National Initiative, said on Thursday that Israeli forces have transformed the occupied West Bank into "fragmented prisons" through a network of more than 1,300 military checkpoints, most of them closed to Palestinian movement, effectively separating cities and towns from one another. He stated that these restrictions have severely paralyzed economic activity, disrupted education and limited access to health services across all West Bank governorates.
Settlement Violence
Barghouti noted that the Israeli army has conducted widespread raids across the territory alongside mass arrests, continued repression and home demolitions, as well as systematically preventing most Palestinian farmers from reaching their agricultural lands to harvest olives during the current season. "The Israeli occupation uses occupier terror gangs as a spearhead for settlement expansion," he said, adding that these groups continue their attacks on towns, villages and cities, turning the territory into a "battlefield where terror never stops."
He stated that the ongoing violence aims to drive Palestinians from their land and achieve the "Zionist expansionist dream" of annexation, Judaization and displacement. Barghouti stressed that the steadfastness of local populations and popular committees confronting occupiers constitutes the only factor preventing the implementation of Israel's plan to empty the territory of its indigenous population.
International Response
The Palestinian official urged the international community to stop turning a blind eye to Israeli crimes and to support Palestinian resilience by imposing sanctions and a comprehensive boycott on the entire occupation and settlement system, including the Israeli government. Around 750,000 Israeli settlers currently live in the West Bank, including occupied East Jerusalem, across 194 settlements and approximately 400 outposts, according to Palestinian figures.