Amid dozens of Palestinian flags, a handful of Hamas banners stand alongside photographs of a few anonymous people, representing some of the nearly 10,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. On Saturday, August 3, in Ramallah, a demonstration in support of the prisoners, like in in several West Bank towns, unusually brought together all the issues that matter in the territory: The "anti-terrorist" operations organized by the Israeli army, during which several hundred civilians have been killed since the bloody Hamas attack on Israel on October 7; the constant harassment by settlers throughout the occupied territory; and the 40,000 deaths, many of them civilians, in nine months of war in Gaza.
In Ramallah's Al-Manarah Square, only a few hundred people turned out to voice their discontent. The day before, Hamas's call for a "Day of Rage" was also poorly attended. Like the "general strike," called in the wake of the targeted assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran, on July 31, which followed that of senior Hezbollah officer Fouad Shukur, in Beirut, a few hours earlier.
In the West Bank today, concern is taking over. People mentioned the Israeli military operation where, that very morning in Tulkarem, nine people, including a Hamas commander, were killed in two drone strikes, within hours of each other. "We must continue to support each other in these increasingly difficult times for all Palestinians, in Gaza, in Israeli prisons and here," said Nassif Al-Deek, a demonstrator.
In anticipation of an announced retaliation from Iran and Lebanon after the deaths of Ismail Haniyeh and Fouad Shukur, people in the West Bank's largest city are worried. It's a time of "mixed feelings," according to 65-year-old Sama Fayez Aweidah, who has come from Jerusalem for the occasion, balancing hope and concern about the future of the conflict.
Despite the anticipation of this possible response to Israeli attacks, the director of the feminist organization Women Studies Center fears a future reaction from Israel. On August 1, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it clear that Israel would pay a "very high price for any act of aggression." Today, Sama Fayez Aweidah, like many of her acquaintances, is stocking up on food and water to face any eventuality. She fears "even more horrors," she said, referring to the brutal bombardments in the Gaza Strip and the regular operations of the Israeli army in the West Bank.
Standing in the square, after a short walk through the streets of Ramallah, the sexagenerian also cited the torture suffered by several Palestinian detainees in the Israeli prison of Sde Teiman, where nine soldiers were recently arrested on charges of abuse, including sexual abuse, inflicted on a young Palestinian. Or Omar Assef, her sister's neighbor, released a month earlier, having lost 30 kilos, so changed that it took his relatives a while to recognize him. She breathed out, as if every sentence of the conversation cost her: "I'm afraid Israel will destroy the West Bank as it destroyed the Gaza Strip."
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