Israel detains 13 Palestinians, demolishes homes in occupied West Bank

At least 13 Palestinians were detained in the Israeli occupation military’s raids in the West Bank today amid escalating tensions in the occupied territory, local media said.

Two young Palestinians were taken into Israeli custody in the Balata refugee camp in eastern Nablus after a raid on their house, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

A former prisoner was also arrested in Tubas in the northern West Bank after Israeli occupation forces raided his house, according to Kamal Bani Odeh, the local director of the Palestinian Prisoner Society.

Ten more people were arrested in raids in the northern city of Qalqilya and Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, Wafa said.

According to the news agency, Israeli occupation forces forcibly displaced several Palestinian families in various areas of the West Bank to turn their houses into military outposts.

Israeli military bulldozers also demolished a Palestinian home in Ramallah city, citing the lack of a building permit, witnesses said.

The Israeli army has intensified home demolitions and field interrogations of Palestinians in the Bruqin and Kafr Al-Dik towns of Salfit, northern West Bank over the last week.

At least 968 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, the Health Ministry said.