Feb 27, 2025

We want to share with you this special update from our staff based in the West Bank. Please read on to learn about what is happening to Palestinian children and families in the occupied West Bank and how MECA and our local partners are responding where we can.

In solidarity,

All of us at MECA

When Israel began its genocide against Gaza in October 2023, it also began escalating assaults in the West Bank. In 2024, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 93 Palestinian children with live ammunition, drone strikes, airstrikes, and shelling.

Earlier this week, two Palestinian children were killed in one day. 

Twelve-year-old Ayman was near a relative’s home in the West Bank city of Hebron when he was shot in the back and killed by an Israeli soldier.  That same day, near Jenin in the north, Rimas age 13, was in the courtyard of her home when an Israeli soldier inside a heavily armored Israeli military vehicle fired at least five bullets and killed her.  

The devastating and vicious attacks on Palestinians are increasing. In the first two months of 2025, Israeli forces have already killed 16 Palestinian children. The Israeli operation in Jenin, which began on January 21 and is still ongoing and spread to other areas, is the longest assault in the West Bank since the early 2000s and has included airstrikes, drone strikes, tanks and massive destruction. 

“We don’t even look out the window because we are afraid to see what is right outside. When the Israeli occupation demolished many homes at the same time in the camp, the children all started wailing from the terrifying sounds.”
– One of MECA’s partners in Jenin Refugee Camp

Trigger-happy Israeli soldiers are everywhere you go. Violent Israeli settlers rampage through Palestinian villages attacking people, forcing them from their homes, destroying property, and stealing land. Forty-nine Palestinian structures across the West Bank were demolished last week, and more than 40,000 people have been displaced from four refugee camps and the surrounding areas in the northern West Bank. 

The Israeli military has a labyrinth of checkpoints, gates, and roadblocks across the West Bank. They control where people can go and what they can do, which means people are prohibited from reaching health services, schools, or work. The local economy is in tatters and people are going hungry.

Education has been disrupted in about 100 schools, further exacerbating psychological and social stress. 

“It is not only the violence and sense of loss, but also the ongoing instability with no stable home, source of income, or schools for the children.”
–Sara who works in the field of psychosocial support in Jenin and spoke of the dire needs.

The military operation launched in Tulkarem has entered its 32nd consecutive day. The occupying army carried out a large-scale raid on homes, searching them and destroying everything they could: furniture, books, sinks. In some cases, they turn Palestinian homes into military barracks. Residents of the two refugee camps in the area were forced to leave their homes in the bitter cold; approximately 20,000 refugees are living in 10 shelters across Tulkarem City and its villages. 

MECA’s response

We have been staying in touch with our local partners to learn about the situation in each city and camp and find out what we can do to help. We have also been in touch with students from our scholarship program in these areas, most of whom are studying online during these attacks.

In the Tulkarem camp, MECA has been working with our local partner. Despite all the difficult circumstances, the volunteers there have been helping to provide shelter for displaced families, transporting them from the camp to safer areas. A kitchen was established in the camp to provide meals, and we have distributed 200 food parcels sourced from local business and farmers, 600 sets of warm clothes for children, and 200 warm blankets. The volunteers have been exposed more than once to direct gunfire while doing this work. 

As we write this report, a bad storm is hitting, which has been so hard on the families in the West Bank and Gaza whose homes have been destroyed or who have been forced from their homes. Just this week, seven infants in Gaza died from the cold. The number of Palestinian people in need continues to grows every day and MECA staff and partners throughout Palestine are doing everything we can to support their survival.