Israeli military, PA security forces carry out West Bank raids, arrests
The Israeli military has carried out raids and arrests in locations across the occupied West Bank over recent hours, including:
- The city of Hebron, where two former Palestinian prisoners have been re-arrested
- The town of as-Samu, south of Hebron
- The city of Yatta, south of Hebron
Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces have arrested a man in Jenin’s Marah Saad neighbourhood, which houses displaced people from the Jenin refugee camp, according to our Al Jazeera Arabic colleagues.
PA security forces have also confiscated and detonated explosive devices used by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli forces in the city of Nablus.
Israel’s ramped-up West Bank operation part of ‘strategic goal of annexation'
The Israeli defence minister has announced that Israel’s military campaign in the occupied West Bank – which includes the use of tanks that change the geography and topography of refugee camps – will last until the end of 2025.
Israel’s presence in the West Bank has been deemed illegal, so the fact that it’s working in the territory as if it were Israel is already problematic. But in addition to all of that, there are Israeli settler leaders announcing coalitions, talking about imposing sovereignty in the West Bank.
That takes us back to annexation, which is at the heart of the Israeli government programme.
There have been a lot of steps taken under the fog of war – a lot of legislation and orders – basically appropriating thousands of acres of Palestinian land, issuing demolition orders, taking over land, and destroying roads that connect Palestinian villages.
This is all basically to serve the strategic goal of annexation.
Israel arrests 19 Palestinians in West Bank’s Hebron, Bethlehem governorates: Report
Israeli forces arrested five people across the occupied West Bank city of Hebron, the nearby town of Dura, and the Fawwar refugee camp, according to the Wafa news agency.
Another 14 were arrested in the village of Husan and the nearby Dheisheh refugee camp, located in the governorate of Bethlehem, Wafa reported.
During the raid in Husan, Israeli forces also temporarily detained about 20 people, subjecting them to what Wafa described as “harsh” interrogations.
Jenin municipality says Israel set to demolish 87 buildings today and ‘change the map’
The Jenin municipality in the occupied West Bank has said it counted 87 buildings set for demolition by Israeli authorities later today, each of which contained three to six residential units.
The “major demolition” would change the map of Jenin, the municipality said. It was not clear whether residents would be allowed to collect their belongings before the clearance set for 3pm local time [13:00 GMT] began.
Jenin’s refugee camp remained “totally empty” after more than 20,000 residents were displaced from within the camp and adjacent areas by a weeks-long Israeli assault.
Smoke billows after an explosion over the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank during an Israeli raid
