The four-page letter addressed to Attorney General Merrick Garland calls on the department to investigate potential crimes committed by Israeli soldiers and civilians and is a rare instance of public disagreement inside the department.
In the year since the Hamas-led attacks on Israel, the occupied West Bank has seen an increase in Israeli military raids and attacks by Israeli settlers. More than 600 Palestinians have been killed.
After his father was killed by Israeli settlers raiding his village in the central West Bank, he says, 15-year-old Noor Assi sometimes envies other teens, but says, "I have a family to take care of."
For Palestinian civilians caught in the middle of the ongoing conflict between Israeli forces and the Hamas militant group, the consequences have been unremittingly difficult, and deadly.
Was the murder of a young Palestinian man in the West Bank an anti-gay hate crime? NPR identifies the accused killer and explores the parallel systems of justice that have yet to resolve this case.
For Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, access to water has been a struggle for years. But since last Oct. 7, water has become even harder for them to obtain.
The State Department urged Israel to move quickly to investigate the death of a U.S. woman during a protest against Israeli settlements in the West Bank last week. Eyewitnesses said she was shot in the head by Israeli forces policing the protest. Israeli authorities have said they are investigating the incident.
The Israeli military vows to stamp out Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian fighters tell NPR they are willing to die to resist Israeli occupation.
For three decades, Khalil Shikaki has provided insights into Palestinian public opinion. The most recent poll showed a rise in Hamas popularity, though a majority of respondents don't support Hamas.
After the Hamas attack of Oct. 7 triggered Israel's invasion of the Gaza Strip, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began fleeing from the North of Gaza to the South. As they fled, many Palestinians reported passing through checkpoints with cameras. Israel had previously used facial recognition software in the West Bank, and some Palestinians reached out to The New York Times reporter Sheera Frenkel to investigate whether the same was happening in Gaza.
Science correspondent Geoff Brumfiel talks to Frenkel about how Israel launched this facial recognition system in Gaza late last year with the help of private companies and Google photos.
The holy month of Ramadan concluded this week with Eid al-Fitr, a celebration with food, family and friends. For Palestinians, the war in Gaza has weighed heavily on this year's holiday.
A Palestinian Authority official says there are around 700,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who have gone six months without work since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7.
In Hebron, many settlers have joined the ranks of the Israeli military. Palestinians and Israeli human rights activists say the result has been abuse and harassment.
