What’s happening in Gaza and the West Bank?
- The Israeli military has arrested at least six Palestinians overnight after raiding towns in Jericho, Bethlehem and Tubas governorates of the occupied West Bank, according to the Wafa news agency.
- At least 11 Palestinians, including two children and three journalists, have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since dawn, with six others injured, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
- More than 480 Palestinians – including at least 169 children and 64 women – have been killed since the ceasefire with Israel came into effect in October 2025, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
Israeli forces deploy overnight across Tulkarem in occupied West Bank
Israeli forces were deployed overnight across several main streets in the occupied West Bank city of Tulkarem, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
Wafa said troops were seen in the city centre, the vegetable market, and the road leading to Martyr Thabet Governmental Hospital.
The agency reported that soldiers posted threatening stickers, containing inciting slogans and direct threats to residents, on walls in several neighbourhoods. Surveillance drones were also flown over the vegetable market, while live ammunition was fired as military vehicles moved through the streets.
Wafa said Israeli military vehicles rammed Palestinian cars on the road leading to the hospital, the second such incident reported that day, after two vehicles were deliberately struck earlier on Nablus Street near Tulkarem refugee camp. No injuries were reported.
The developments come amid ongoing Israeli military operations in Tulkarem and its refugee camps, including Nur Shams.
‘If you sleep, settlers will burn your house’: Fear in the West Bank
When the music stops, Naif Ghawanmeh, 45, takes a seat in front of the fire. The night is chilly, and for the first time in weeks, everything is still for a moment – the Israeli settlers’ celebrations have finished for the day.
But the village of Ras Ein al-Auja, situated in the eastern West Bank’s Jericho governorate, has been all but wiped out.
The village was one of the last Palestinian herding communities in this part of the Jordan Valley, but now, the herders’ sheep have gone – most of them stolen or poisoned by settlers or sold off by villagers under pressure. Their water has been cut off – the Ras Ein spring declared off-limits by neighbouring settlers for the past year.
And for the past two weeks, most of the community’s homes have been dismantled. Many of the families forced out burned their furniture before they left, not wanting to leave it for the invading settlers to use.
“By God, it’s a difficult feeling,” Ghawanmeh says. “Everyone left. Not one of them [remains]. They all left.”
