Palestine weekly wrap: Under cover of ceasefire, Israel increases grip

Small-scale elections took place in Gaza – specifically in Deir el-Balah – for the first time since 2006, in municipal elections on Saturday. In Deir el-Balah, turnout was 23 percent, with the commission attributing the low figure to an outdated civil registry reflecting the scale of displacement and death, and with a Palestinian population whose attention remains focused less on municipal administration than on survival.

Since the Zikim crossing was reopened two weeks ago, the United Nations has recorded a measurable increase in aid entering Gaza, though the amounts are still inadequate considering the high need in the decimated Gaza Strip.

Settler violence across the West Bank

On April 21 in al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, a shooter in military fatigues opened fire towards a school, killing two people, including a teenager, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society. Israeli forces closed the village’s entrances and attacked mourners at the funeral, according to the Palestinian state news agency Wafa.

Also on April 21, a vehicle from the security detail of far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir struck and killed a 16-year-old boy near Hebron. On April 23, 15-year-old Youssef Ishtayeh was shot dead by Israeli forces in Nablus on his way home from school. The next day, 25-year-old Oudeh Awawdeh died of wounds from a settler attack on Deir Dibwan, east of Ramallah, after which Israeli forces arrested approximately 30 residents, videos showed.

This week, settler chat groups circulated calls to “cancel Oslo with your feet”, urging armed members to enter Areas A and B – under full or partial control of the Palestinian Authority according to the Oslo Accords – of the West Bank as Israel celebrated its Independence Day. Attacks were subsequently reported by local activists in multiple places, including Masafer Yatta, Qusra, Rafat, Birzeit, and Jalud over multiple days. Israeli forces also sealed entrances and imposed curfews in Madama, south of Nablus, and al-Ram, north of East Jerusalem. In Beit Imrin, settlers set fire to two vehicles and attempted to burn a home, injuring eight people, including an infant, according to Wafa.

The week also saw settlers push further into lands that have historically carried even Israeli legal protections, such as lands owned by religious authorities. On April 20, settlers arrived at the community of Hammamat al-Maleh in the northern Jordan Valley with bulldozers and demolished the community’s school, along with residential structures, fully displacing the community’s last three remaining households, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The school had been co-funded by more than a dozen Western donor countries; Ireland said it would seek compensation from Israel. The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem conducted a field visit to the area this week to assess damage to church-owned lands. Lands owned by the Islamic Waqf also saw settler attacks and vehicular thefts this week in Awsaj.

OCHA’s latest report documented 925 movement obstacles across the West Bank – the highest in 20 years, and 43 percent above the two-decade average – with nine Palestinian communities fully displaced in 2026 alone.

East Jerusalem evictions

In occupied East Jerusalem, demolitions in Silwan’s al-Bustan neighbourhood have sharply accelerated.

Israeli NGO Ir Amim documented 17 homes demolished there in 2026 versus 13 in all of 2025, warning that the municipality appears to be targeting all 115 homes by October to make way for a park adjacent to the City of David site, run by the settler organisation Elad.

More than 2,000 Palestinians risk being displaced “in one of the largest waves of expulsions in East Jerusalem since 1967″, Ir Amim warned. The Rajabi family in Silwan’s Batn al-Hawa neighborhood received final eviction notices for seven apartments, to be vacated by May 17, according to the Palestinian Authority’s Jerusalem Governorate.

In Sheikh Jarrah, Israeli authorities approved construction of an 11-storey ultra-Orthodox yeshiva opposite the local mosque, according to Wafa.

On the Israeli political front, former Prime Ministers Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid announced this week that they would unite their parties under Bennett’s leadership ahead of expected October elections. The announcement signals that even the coalition most likely to challenge Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be led by a former settler movement leader who has ruled out Arab parties from any future coalition, leaving little daylight between Israel’s major political blocs on questions of occupation and settlement expansion.