Israeli army conducts raids as settlers ramp up attacks across occupied West Bank

Israeli forces detained multiple Palestinians during military raids Saturday, while settlers escalated attacks on Palestinian properties in separate incidents across the occupied West Bank, Anadolu reports.

In eastern Nablus city, troops stormed the Balata al-Balad area, arresting two brothers after raiding their home, eyewitnesses told Anadolu.

Another youth was detained during a separate operation in the city’s Rafidiya neighborhood.

Simultaneously, illegal Israeli settlers destroyed Palestinian agricultural assets in multiple locations in the southern and eastern West Bank.

READ: Israeli settlers torch Palestinian farmland near Ramallah in West Bank escalation

Near Hebron, they uprooted some 70 olive trees belonging to a local farmer, while near Jericho, the eastern West Bank, they razed a sheep pen and water tank in a Bedouin community, according to Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin.

The official Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission reported 341 settler attacks in April alone against Palestinians and their properties, calling the violence systematic efforts to displace Palestinians with Israeli authorities’ tacit approval.

Since the start of the Israeli onslaught on the Gaza Strip on Oct. 7, 2023, nearly 970 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers across the occupied West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.​​​​​​​

The International Court of Justice declared last July that Israel’s longstanding occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

READ: Palestinian doctor receives the charred remains of her nine children following an Israeli air strike on her home in southern Gaza