West Bank (UNA/WAFA) – During the 1948 Palestinian Nakba, Zionist gangs looted and plundered Palestinian cities and towns upon occupying them. In addition to committing massacres and destroying or seizing homes, properties, and lands, they looted and robbed Palestinians, according to testimonies from refugees and books by historians, including Israeli historians.
Israeli historian Adam Raz notes in his book that Zionist gangs and Israeli soldiers looted and stole Palestinian homes, mosques, churches, and monasteries in Beersheba, Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Safed, Beit She'an, Ramla, and Lod.
He asserts that "Israeli soldiers stationed at the checkpoints at the exits from the city of Lod in July 1948 confiscated the money and jewelry they had with them from Palestinians deported from the city on their way to Ramallah."
History repeated itself during the war of extermination waged by the Israeli occupation against the Palestinian people since October 2023, XNUMX. Not only did the occupation kill Palestinians and destroy their homes in the Gaza Strip, but it also stole and looted their money and jewelry, before committing the same crimes in the West Bank.
During the ongoing Israeli aggression on the city of Jenin and its camp, WAFA monitored testimonies from residents of the camp and its surroundings, who reported that Israeli occupation soldiers raided their homes and forced them to leave, claiming that they were turning them into military posts. Upon returning, residents discovered that large-scale looting and theft had taken place in the forcibly evacuated homes.
Abu Alaa, a 60-year-old resident of the Jabriyat neighborhood overlooking Jenin refugee camp, said that occupation forces stormed his home after blowing up its doors and forced him to leave immediately because the house had become a military barracks.
“They forcibly took my wife and me out, and prevented me from moving my belongings. They told me I had 10 minutes to evacuate the house. The officer in charge threatened to kill me if I tried to go out into the street. He told me I had to go to the neighbors’ house, but I refused and told my wife we would walk down the street until we reached the nearest area from which we could go to my children’s house. Then the soldiers fired two bullets to scare us, but thank God we were able to leave the area with the help of a young man who took us in his car,” Abu Alaa said.
The occupation soldiers stayed in Abu Alaa's house for about a month, during which time the house was turned into a garbage dump, the occupation soldiers destroyed its contents and completely wrecked its furniture, but the most difficult thing was stealing large sums of money and gold jewelry.
“I returned home after 27 days, and I didn’t really recognize it. Everything about it had changed. Dirt and garbage were everywhere. It wasn’t my home, but a garbage dump. In addition, the property inside was destroyed: the TV, the living room, the kitchen, and even the bathrooms. Everything was destroyed,” Abu Alaa continued.
Abu Alaa indicated that after inspecting his home and his son’s home, it became clear that the occupation soldiers had stolen sums of money from inside them, including gold jewelry valued at 50 shekels, 7 shekels in cash from his son’s home, and about 1000 dinars from his room, which he had left there one day before the occupation army stormed, in addition to a piggy bank containing 5000 shekels in coins and 300 shekels in paper money.
In the Al-Awda roundabout area at the western entrance to Jenin refugee camp, occupation forces stormed the home of Umm Najib Awis, wreaking havoc, before stealing her son's laptop and stealing the family's clothes after they were unable to find any money.
“They completely destroyed the house, they destroyed it, and they searched my sons’ closet,” Awis says. “I saw the soldiers sharing their clothes. One of them said, ‘These are his pants,’ and the other chose winter coats.”
While preparing this report, we encountered stories of citizens who were robbed by occupation soldiers after they raided their homes. However, they preferred not to reveal their names for fear of prosecution, especially given that the occupation's aggression against Jenin continues and soldiers' raids on homes have not ceased.
A resident living near Jenin refugee camp said that the occupation forces stole approximately 10 shekels from his home after raiding and searching it during the first week of the incursion in late January. After questioning the officer in charge of the raid, he was only given 500 shekels back.
In the home of citizen "N.A." in Khallet al-Sawha, near the camp, the occupation forces stole a thousand shekels from the homeowner, and before leaving, they returned half the amount after burning it.
In Tulkarm Governorate, the Israeli occupation's crimes during the ongoing aggression on the city and its two camps were not limited to destruction and vandalism, but extended to include organized theft and looting of citizens' property. WAFA documented the testimonies of numerous citizens, who reported that occupation soldiers stole money and valuables from their homes after storming and vandalizing them.
At the beginning of the assault on Nour Shams camp, occupation forces stormed the surrounding areas, including the employee housing in the Aktaba suburb, raiding dozens of homes, many of which were subjected to searches accompanied by widespread looting of their contents.
A citizen, who preferred to remain anonymous, said that the occupation forces stormed his home and forced him and his family to leave at gunpoint at night. Two days later, he returned home to find that the soldiers had vandalized its contents and stolen internal components of his work computers, valued at 15 shekels, in addition to 2000 shekels. They did not leave any amount of money they found inside the safes, even if it was small.
In a similar incident, the home of citizen Muhammad Abdul Jabbar Abu Hamdi on Al-Sikka Street in the suburb was robbed by occupation soldiers who stormed the residential building where he lives, which has four floors, and forced Abu Hamdi and his wife to go down to the first floor. After they withdrew, he was surprised that the contents of the house appeared to be untouched, but he later discovered that he had been subjected to a major robbery, which included 6000 shekels in cash, a luxury watch in its box valued at 4000 dinars, and three boxes of luxury perfumes.
In the town of Tamoun, south of Tubas, Mohammed Bani Odeh, who was forced to leave his home by the occupation forces before it was turned into a military barracks, said he had placed 1500 dinars in a bag before being prevented from taking it with him when he left the house.
He added, "Until this moment, I have not found the money... Most likely, the soldiers stole the money."
Bani Odeh said he had saved the money in anticipation of any raid on his home during any incursion into the town, after hearing about occupation soldiers stealing the contents of some of the homes they raided and turning them into military barracks.
Concurrent with the week-long incursion into the town of Tamoun, the Far'a refugee camp also witnessed a similar Israeli assault, which lasted for ten days. During this time, the occupation forced dozens of families to flee their homes and destroyed the infrastructure.
Safaa al-Ghoul and her family left their home on the fifth day of the assault on the camp, leaving behind a four-story residential building for her family and siblings. The young woman says, "We returned the day after the occupation forces withdrew from the camp to find that almost all of its contents had been destroyed, in addition to the devastation left behind by the occupation soldiers."
She continued, "We lost about 2000 shekels that were in our house. We spent days searching for it, but without knowing what happened." According to her, the occupation soldiers stole the sum after searching the entire house for the money and failing to find it.
In the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate, Mukafih Hussein, a resident of Ramallah, said that occupation forces raided his home at dawn, detained his family members in a room, and ordered them to place their phones on the table. The soldiers then proceeded to search the rooms, assaulting and destroying all contents.
He explained that before withdrawing, the occupation forces stole all of his phones, four new ones, and a laptop. They also detained his son, Abdul Rahman, and transferred him to another location for several hours, before releasing him. He estimated the losses at approximately 4 shekels.
He pointed out that the occupation forces raided a house adjacent to his own, stole 2000 shekels, and threw oil barrels on the ground and furniture.
In Qalqilya, citizen Muhammad al-Dalu was subjected to a large-scale robbery. He said, "Soldiers stormed the house in large numbers and detained my wife, children, and me in a room, preventing us from moving or doing anything. They conducted a field investigation with each of us separately. They then searched the house."
Al-Dalu was surprised to find that the occupation soldiers had stolen 2500 dinars worth of gold, 1500 shekels worth of cash, and checks. The occupation forces didn't stop there, however, and raided his daughter's home, stealing 7 shekels and five ounces of gold.
Salfit Governorate has recently witnessed a series of violations by the Israeli occupation forces, including the theft of citizens' money and property, most of which were concentrated near the northern entrance to Salfit, which is a shared entrance with the "Ariel" settlement built on citizens' land. It is considered one of the most stringent Israeli military checkpoints in the governorate, where vehicles passing through the road are randomly stopped daily, searched, and their drivers detained for long hours, harassing them, stealing sums of money from their vehicles, in addition to searching their mobile phones and detaining them.
Citizen Moaz Sultan reported that he was robbed near the northern entrance to Salfit by Israeli occupation soldiers. His vehicle was stopped and he was forced to leave, leaving all his belongings inside, before being detained and removed from the vehicle.
Sultan says, “After I was forced to leave the vehicle and detained away from it, I went back to check my belongings and discovered that 600 shekels had been stolen from inside. There was no explanation other than that the soldiers had done it.”
In turn, the merchant “Abu Khaled”, who works in the field of transporting goods between Palestinian cities, indicated that while he was driving his truck loaded with goods towards the city of Salfit from the northern entrance, the occupation soldiers stopped him under the pretext of “inspecting” him. They asked him to get out of the vehicle and move away from it, and forced him to stop far away and turn around while they began a thorough inspection of the vehicle. After more than 30 minutes, he was allowed to return to his vehicle and continue on his way, but he found that the occupation soldiers had stolen about 6000 shekels from him that he had kept in the vehicle’s drawer.
Thefts and violations have become more frequent in this area. Many citizens, merchants, and school teachers have reported being subjected to theft, with occupation soldiers exploiting vehicle inspections to steal money and property without any deterrent or accountability.
In this context, anti-settlement activist Nazmi Al-Salman condemned the escalating thefts perpetrated by occupation soldiers against Palestinian citizens at the northern entrance to Salfit, stressing that these attacks are not isolated incidents, but rather have become a systematic policy aimed at humiliating citizens and seizing their property.
Al-Salman said, "We have received repeated reports from citizens arriving in or departing from Salfit, stating that they have been robbed by occupation soldiers who stop and search their vehicles after passengers have dropped off."
He added: "What's worrying is that citizens don't discover the thefts until after they leave the military checkpoint, and they lose the money they had in their possession without having the ability to object or claim their rights."
Al-Salman pointed out that these thefts occur frequently and at various times, confirming that the occupation deliberately targets Palestinians by stealing their money, in addition to restricting them with continuous military checkpoints.
Al-Salman explained that the occupation forces are not content with stealing money, but are deliberately humiliating Palestinian citizens by detaining them for long hours, whether next to concrete blocks or inside a military tower erected at the entrance to the town of Kafr Haris, which has been closed off with an iron gate for several months, compounding the suffering of citizens during their daily commute.
Al-Salman called for documenting these crimes and reporting them to international human rights organizations to expose the occupation's policies of systematic theft and persecution of Palestinians.
For his part, the researcher specializing in Israeli affairs said that the Israeli media addresses the cases that are documented, pointing out that more than one report has talked about the period during the beginning of the aggression on the Gaza Strip and the behavior of soldiers in homes and their posting on social media pages of the belongings they stole from homes, exchange offices, stores, and other places. He added that these cases are being investigated, but the method of handling them or the accountability mechanism is not revealed. He noted that there are no deterrent penalties in these cases, which encourages soldiers to continue their thefts.
Mansour stated that massive thefts are taking place, and the Israeli occupation army considers them spoils, but in reality they are thefts, and there is no accountability for them, and the proceeds are seized for the Israeli treasury.
Mansour pointed to the thefts by occupation soldiers from homes in the West Bank, and Israel's lax response to this phenomenon. They consider this a form of pressure on Palestinians, making their lives unbearable and robbing them of a sense of security regarding their lives and property.
He added that there are individual thefts, such as settlers stealing sheep and livestock in the West Bank, and that the occupation authorities, instead of investigating and prosecuting them, either condemn the Palestinians or demand that they prove that the livestock is theirs, something that has happened more than once recently.
He added that the occupation police, under the policies of so-called National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, have begun granting immunity to soldiers for murder, theft, and violations of the law. He added that more than one former Israeli official has criticized the way the army and settlers' crimes against Palestinians are being overlooked, noting that we are today facing an uncontrolled phenomenon that is expanding and becoming a systemic phenomenon that is not being controlled.
He highlighted the importance of documenting theft crimes by the Palestinian police and judiciary, using procedures consistent with international documentation standards. This process can then lead to lawsuits being filed against the perpetrators of these thefts, whether through Israeli or international courts, to demand that this phenomenon be combated, stopped, and that whatever can be recovered be recovered, because citizens alone cannot confront the Israeli system.
International law guarantees protection for civilians living under occupation, including their property and possessions. However, Israeli occupation soldiers continue to loot and steal Palestinian property and assets, sometimes documenting these thefts and sharing them on their social media pages. This is in the absence of effective international accountability for their crimes and their continued impunity.
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