Occupied West Bank’s Palestinians are trapped between the Israel-Iran crossfire
Iranian rocket trails in the sky above Ramallah city in the occupied West Bank on 18 June 2025
Fayha Shalash reports in The New Arab on 18 June 2025:
Palestinian lives in the occupied West Bank face extreme risk from falling Iranian and Yemeni missiles or shrapnel from Israeli interceptor missiles fired by air defence systems.
They accuse Israel of deliberately diverting these interceptors from the airspace of illegal Israeli settlements to Palestinian villages and towns without any regard for the lives of residents.
In the town of Sa’ir, east of Hebron, five Palestinian children were slightly to moderately injured on Friday by shrapnel from a Yemeni missile after Israeli missiles intercepted its path.
Interceptor missiles attempt to divert the threat of rockets as far as possible from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, resulting in these rockets or shrapnel often scattered throughout Palestinian areas.
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There are no shelters in Palestinian villages and towns, both there in the 1948 areas and in the West Bank. Protection from missiles falls on the Palestinians themselves, who cannot develop even the infrastructure in their areas due to deliberate Israeli restrictions.
Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza and Israel’s new war on Iran, not a single shrapnel from Yemeni or Iranian missiles or interceptors has fallen on any Israeli settlements. In contrast, dozens of such missiles have fallen inside Palestinian villages and towns, reinforcing Palestinians’ conviction that their lives are not as important as those of settlers.