WEST BANK (Palestine Foundation Information Center) Cities and towns across the West Bank witnessed a wide-scale escalation by Israeli occupation forces (IOF) overnight and into Thursday morning. The escalation involved simultaneous raids, house searches, and arrests, accompanied by armed clashes and injuries among Palestinians.
Local sources reported that the IOF blew up the home of martyr Jaafar Muna in the city of Nablus after surrounding it and evacuating the surrounding area. Muna had reportedly carried out an anti-occupation operation before being killed.
The IOF troops also stormed the Old City of Nablus from the direction of the Huwara checkpoint, sparking intense clashes with Palestinian resistance fighters.
In Jenin, Israeli troops arrested brothers Qassam and Ahmad Ma’moun Najm after raiding their home in the town of Seerist, and also besieged a house in the village of al-Judeida, south of the city.
In Occupied Jerusalem, the raid on the town of Beit Duqqu, northwest of the city, resulted in three young men being shot with live bullets, who were subsequently transported to hospitals for treatment.
The escalation extended to other areas as well. Israeli forces raided the towns of Deir Jarir northeast of Ramallah, Attil north of Tulkarem, and Beit Furik east of Nablus, where a young man was arrested after his home was searched.
In the south, the IOF launched an arrest campaign in al-Fawwar refugee camp south of al-Khalil, detaining Ahmad Fareed Abu Hashhash amid heavy military presence in the Beit Jibrin neighborhood inside the camp.
Local sources also reported that armed settler militias gathered at the junction near the village of al-Lubban ash-Sharqiya, south of Nablus, while Israeli forces closed off the area, raising fears of fresh settler attacks against villagers.
Also on Thursday morning, Israeli forces further escalated attacks against Palestinians and their property by raiding the village of al-Mughayyir northeast of Ramallah, accompanied by military bulldozers that began demolishing Palestinian residential structures, claiming they were built without permits.
According to local sources, the bulldozers began demolishing a house in the village under tight military protection, barring residents from approaching the area.
Meanwhile, settler militias continued their repeated attacks. Settlers uprooted agricultural saplings and tampered with Palestinian-owned lands in the Huwara area, east of the town of Yatta, south of al-Khalil governorate. This comes as part of efforts to impose new facts on the ground and expand settler control in the area.
These attacks are taking place amid a growing wave of home demolitions and land seizures in the West Bank, at a time when Palestinians face continuous escalation from both the Israeli forces and settlers.
There have been widespread Palestinian calls to escalate confrontation and resistance, and to target the occupation and its settlers across the West Bank.
