Israeli forces continue raid on West Bank’s Al Mughayyir for third day

Israeli forces on Saturday extended their assault on the West Bank town of Al Mughayyir into the third day, raiding homes, arresting residents, and bulldozing farmland, according to witnesses and Palestinian officials, Anadolu reports.

Local activist Mohammed Abu Alia said troops stormed more than 30 houses, ransacked belongings, and fired tear gas inside one residence. He added that soldiers seized vehicles, money and jewelry, while barring residents and journalists from entering the town. Many families have been stranded outside since Thursday, he said.

Bulldozers were also seen clearing land to make way for a new settler road through the town’s eastern outskirts, uprooting hundreds of trees in the process. The Palestinian Land Defense and Settlement Resistance Commission said a military order targeting nearly 300 dunums (around 73 acres) of farmland for clearance, one of 18 such orders issued across the West Bank since the start of the year.

Rawhi Fattouh, head of the Palestinian National Council, denounced the raid as part of a “systematic policy of forced displacement and ethnic cleansing.” He said the violence in Al Mughayyir was directly linked to Israel’s broader settlement agenda, including the recently approved E1 plan east of Jerusalem, which critics say would sever the West Bank and prevent a viable Palestinian state.

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“This is not separate from what is happening in Gaza, the genocide, siege and starvation are part of the same campaign against the Palestinian people,” Fattouh said in a statement, urging international action to hold Israeli leaders accountable.

Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said Friday it had arrested a Palestinian, claiming he opened fire near Al Mughayyir a day earlier and wounded a settler. Videos shared online showed soldiers smashing Palestinian vehicles and uprooting farmland during the raids.

Since the start of the second year of the Israeli war in Gaza in October 2023, over a thousand Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In an advisory opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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