Multiple Israeli raids have taken place in Nablus, Qalqilya, Tubas, Hebron, Jenin, Bethlehem and Ramallah.
More than 50 Palestinians have been arrested in Israeli military raids across the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office (ASRA) says, as the army’s deadly assault on the territory, in tandem with its punishing war on Gaza, escalates.
Multiple raids on Thursday took place in Nablus, Qalqilya, Tubas, Hebron, Jenin, Bethlehem and Ramallah.
ASRA said children, activists and former prisoners who had been released were among those arrested. It added that raids had taken place at homes and educational institutions.
The Israeli military has also been carrying out house demolitions at a breakneck speed, disregarding international condemnation.
After months of relentless Israeli attacks on the Jenin refugee camp, some Palestinian women were allowed to briefly return, but only to quickly pack what few belongings they could, and then were forced to leave.
After applying for permission from the Israeli military, they were given 40 minutes to pack a lifetime of memories in the al-Hawashin neighbourhood of Jenin.
Nisreen Abu Zeina, a displaced woman from Jenin, said they only wanted to check on the camp and their homes.
“We pray that one day we will be back,” she told media. “We were searched over and over again, but we eventually managed to get to our homes that are still standing. We walked a long distance on destroyed roads, the stench was unbearable. They kept rushing us.”
In another stabbing attack, an Israeli soldier was fatally wounded near the Gush Etzion settlement, which also saw two suspected attackers killed, according to The Times of Israel newspaper. The Israeli army confirmed the stabbing attack was carried out by “two terrorists” – a usual way for Israel to describe Palestinian suspects – who were killed by back-up security personnel at the scene.
Since the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel has accelerated its violence in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 1,000 Palestinians.
As the world was distracted by Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza – which has killed at least 57,575 people, wounded another 136,879 and uprooted nearly the entire population of about 2 million, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry – Israel ramped up its violent raids on the West Bank, as well as its silence as Israeli settlers attack and kill Palestinian villagers.
Israeli settlers, living illegally on Palestinian land, have also become more emboldened with daily rampages – sudden, violent raids on towns, burning property, attacking people, and trying to drive them out of their homes.
The Israeli military protects them, and the settlers’ campaign of violence and intimidation is carried out with impunity.
Settlers attack with impunity
Many Israeli settlers have also been given semi-automatic weapons and “integrated”, in effect, into Israeli forces in the West Bank, to compensate for all the personnel deployed to carry out the war on Gaza.
This has blurred the lines between Israeli security forces and settlers, further empowering the latter to escalate violence against Palestinians.
Issa Amro, coordinator of the Youth Against Settlements group, told media that the mobile housing units were placed in territory designated H1 – referring to the section of Hebron that is under the civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority.
He said this was the first time this had happened in Hebron, adding that it was a dangerous development.
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