While the world’s attention remains fixed on the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Israel’s far-right government is exploiting the international distraction to push forward an unprecedented wave of escalations in the occupied Palestinian territories. Under the cover of a “state of emergency” and the fog of regional war, Israeli authorities have advanced legislation and policies that target Palestinian prisoners, Islamic and Christian holy sites, and entire communities across the West Bank and Gaza.
In a move timed with the 50th anniversary of the Palestinian Land Day (March 31), the Knesset passed a final law imposing the death penalty only on Palestinian prisoners. Human rights organizations have condemned it as the legal codification of an apartheid system that applies exclusively to Palestinians.
Engineered by extremist Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir along with his fascist party members, the law does not merely legalize state-sponsored killing, but it also institutionalizes racial discrimination. It applies solely to Palestinians based on the claims of “denying Israel’s existence,” while explicitly exempting any Israeli who kills a Palestinian.
What is even more brazen is that Israeli legislators celebrated the law with pride, describing it as a "moral" step, exposing the scope of Israel’s legal system and completing the circle toward a full-fledged apartheid regime.
Under the pretext of “emergency measures” linked to the war on Iran, Israel has intensified its assault on the very heart of Palestinian religious and national identity: the holy sites in occupied Jerusalem.
For over a month, the Israeli occupation authorities have completely closed Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshippers, the longest such closure since 1967. This has barred Palestinians from observing the last ten days of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr holiday prayers. Experts in international law view the closure not as a temporary security measure, but as a “practical test” to alter the historic and legal status quo.
Furthermore, Israel has also imposed measures undermining Islamic custodianship over the mosque by reducing the number of staff members allowed to enter the site of the mosque. The Israeli authorities are now intervening in all details of entry, exit and administration, signaling that administrative and security “sovereignty” now rests solely with the occupation.
The Israeli authorities provide cover for Jewish extremist “Temple” groups seeking to exploit the closure and the Jewish Passover holiday to introduce and slaughter “animal sacrifices” inside the mosque’s courtyards.
The crackdown has not spared Christian sanctity either. Under the same “state of emergency” pretext, the Israeli occupation police barred the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land from entering the Church of the Holy Sepulcher to hold “Palm Sunday” Mass. The move led to the cancellation of the historic Palm Sunday procession and was condemned by religious authorities as a blatant disregard for the feelings of millions of Christians worldwide and a direct assault on religious freedom. The cancellation of the Palm Sunday procession is considered the first in centuries.
Following widespread international reactions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intervened to grant the patriarch full and immediate access to the church, which is a reversal that underscored the politically driven nature of the original ban.
At the other margin, settler terrorism continues under official protection.
The occupied West Bank has become an open arena for armed settler groups operating under the protection of the Israeli army. As described in the words of the Palestinian Foreign Ministry and many rights groups, the settler violence against Palestinians and their properties across the West Bank is “organized settler terrorism” aimed at imposing new facts on the ground, including the displacement.
This campaign includes killings, physical assaults, home burnings, infrastructure sabotage and land theft. All these are intended to terrorize Palestinians and push them toward forced displacement. A recent United Nations Human Rights Commission report confirmed a significant rise in settler violence and the seizure of unregistered land to expand settlements, effectively annexing the West Bank and altering its demographic character. Compounding this, the Israeli military has changed its rules of engagement, granting soldiers permission to shoot to kill based merely on a “feeling” of a perceived threat.
Israel has also tightened its stranglehold on Gaza, re-imposing further restrictions on the entry of essential goods to Gaza.
According to official Gaza government figures from March 21, since the cease-fire agreement began in early October last year, Israel has allowed only 1,190 fuel trucks to enter, out of the 8,050 that should have crossed over 161 days. The humanitarian protocol stipulated 50 fuel trucks per day, but Israel’s compliance rate stood at just 14.7%, resulting in a chronic fuel and gas crisis that paralyzed essential services and hindered recovery.
Moreover, Israel continues its policy of targeted assassinations and bombings, as well as continues to encroach on areas under its control in Gaza instead of withdrawal, entrenching a new reality for people in Gaza.
Israel is fully aware that shifting the global spotlight toward the Gulf and Iran provides the ideal situation for an escalation in Palestine that would otherwise draw far greater scrutiny.
Between legislating execution, Judaizing holy sites, expanding settlements and strangling Gaza, the Israeli government is exploiting this war to its maximum extent, benefiting from international and regional silence that translates into a de facto green light for its most extreme and bloody policies.
If these Israeli schemes are not confronted and deterred, they will only embolden Israel to push further with its expansionist agenda, bringing to life exactly what Netanyahu recently spoke of, reshaping the Middle East into a region under Israeli hegemony.
