Various areas of the occupied West Bank witnessed a new wave of Israeli escalation today, Thursday, in the form of demolitions, incursions, and arrests. Attention focused on the village of Mukhamas, northeast of occupied Jerusalem, where a state of widespread military alert prevailed following Israeli reports of losing contact with a group of settlers inside the village.
Sources reported that the occupation army imposed a strict military cordon on the village of Mukhamas, located southeast of Ramallah, and carried out extensive search operations for the settlers. The army later announced the end of the operation and the safe exit of the settlers without injuries, denying that any of them were kidnapped or physically harmed during their presence in the area.
In Bethlehem Governorate, occupation forces launched a raid campaign targeting the village of Al-Rashayda, east of the city, where a Palestinian citizen was arrested after his home was searched and its contents tampered with. Local sources indicated that the detainee had been subjected to a physical assault by settlers days earlier while herding sheep, causing him injuries and bruises before he was arrested today.
In Hebron city, the pace of violations escalated with the arrest of six citizens from various areas, accompanied by a brutal assault on one of the detainees and his field abuse. Occupation forces also prevented ambulance crews from reaching the injured person to provide him with necessary treatment, while another young man from Tulkarm city, north of the West Bank, was also arrested.
In the context of settler attacks, settler groups, under army protection, bulldozed large areas of land in the village of Kafr Ni'ma, west of Ramallah. Settlers also stormed the village of Burqa, east of the city, and carried out provocative tours among the homes of citizens, causing a state of severe tension among the unarmed residents.
Occupation forces reinforced their military restrictions by setting up sudden checkpoints at the entrances to the villages of Aboud and Yabroud in Ramallah Governorate, where citizens were subjected to thorough inspection and identity verification. In a dangerous development, dozens of settlers seized a Palestinian home in Khirbet Sarfin, affiliated with the town of Attara, and smashed its contents and brought in their own furniture to live in it.
Regarding demolition operations, occupation bulldozers began demolishing a two-story house in the Khirbet Al-Deir area in the town of Tuqu', southeast of Bethlehem. The house belongs to citizen Ali Mahmoud Suleiman, with each floor measuring 200 square meters, and the operation was carried out under the pretext of building without a license in areas classified as 'C'.
Tayseer Abu Muflah, director of the Tuqu' Municipal Council, confirmed that the occupation forces turned the area around the demolition site into a closed military barracks, preventing citizens and journalists from approaching. This operation comes as part of a systematic policy to restrict Palestinian urban expansion in the areas surrounding existing settlements in the region.
In Hebron Governorate, the occupation authorities delivered demolition notices for three inhabited homes in the village of Susiya, south of the city. These homes house more than 20 individuals from Palestinian families. The village of Susiya faces continuous threats of demolition and forced displacement in favor of settlement projects that surround the village from several directions.
Destruction operations did not stop at homes but also affected agricultural facilities in the town of Kafr ad-Dik in Salfit Governorate, where the occupation demolished two facilities with a total area of 600 square meters. During the demolition, Israeli forces detained five citizens for several hours, noting that settlers had previously forced the owners of these facilities to evacuate them.
These field developments come amid a continuous escalation of Israeli violations since October 8, 2023, with official statistics indicating the martyrdom of 1173 Palestinians in the West Bank. Medical and human rights sources also recorded injuries to more than 12,000 citizens, while the number of detainees exceeded 23,000 Palestinians in non-stop campaigns.
Occupation forces completely closed the area and prevented citizens from accessing the demolition site or moving around its vicinity during the operation.
شارك برأيك
Widespread escalation in the West Bank: Home demolitions, arrests, and Israeli alert in the village of Mukhamas