Three Palestinians were martyred and dozens were injured in confrontations with the occupation forces in the occupied West Bank. This coincided with statements by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant that the presence of a strong Palestinian authority is an Israeli security interest.
In the same context, the occupation army decided to transfer the Duvdovan unit from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank in anticipation of the situation there erupting. A young man and a girl were martyred and 9 others were injured by bullets from the occupation army, during the storming of the city of Dura near Hebron in the West Bank.
The Ministry of Health announced the martyrdom of Muhammad Hassan Ibrahim Abu Sebaa (22 years old), after being hit by occupation bullets in the heart, while Ahed Mahmoud Awlad Muhammad (24 years old) was martyred after being hit by occupation bullets in the head while she was standing on the roof of her house.
Confrontations broke out between Palestinian youth and the occupation forces when they stormed the city, during which live and rubber bullets and gas bombs were fired.
The Ministry of Health reported that Faris Mahmoud Abdullah Khalifa (37 years old), from Nour Shams camp, east of Tulkarm, was shot dead by occupation soldiers at a military checkpoint. He was left bleeding on the ground until he died, after preventing ambulance crews from reaching him.
This brings the number of Palestinian martyrs to 355 in the West Bank since the start of the aggression on the Gaza Strip on October 7, in addition to about 4,000 injuries.
A Palestinian was also injured by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets on Monday evening, during confrontations that broke out in the town of Beit Laqya, west of Ramallah, after the occupation forces stormed the town.
In a related context, Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent said that 4 Palestinians were injured by occupation forces’ bullets during their storming of the “Al-Makhfiyya Neighborhood” in the city of Nablus in the West Bank.
He added that the occupation forces prevented medical teams from reaching the injured, and also arrested another young man during the raid.
On the other hand, the Palestinian Red Crescent said that a Palestinian was injured by bullets from the occupation forces near the Qalandiya military checkpoint, north of occupied Jerusalem.
Since the outbreak of the devastating war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, the Israeli army has intensified its military operations in the West Bank, and increased the pace of incursions and raids into Palestinian cities, towns, and camps.
Arrests
The arrest operations carried out by the Israeli occupation army have not stopped since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. It arrested two Palestinian citizens south of the city of Hebron after the occupation raided the villages of Janbah and Khallet Al-Dabaa in Musafer Yatta.
In a related context, the occupation forces arrested 55 Palestinians, including two children, from various areas in the occupied West Bank on Sunday night.
A joint statement issued by the Prisoners’ and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club stated that, from yesterday evening, Sunday until Monday morning, the Israeli occupation forces launched a massive arrest campaign targeting at least 55 Palestinians in the West Bank, and explained that among the detainees was a woman from the city of Hebron, and two children, And former prisoners.
The statement added that the arrest operations were concentrated in the Nablus governorate, where 25 students were arrested from the campus of An-Najah National University, which witnessed a large raid. The rest of the arrests were distributed among the governorates of Hebron, Ramallah, Jerusalem, Jenin and Tubas.
According to Tel Aviv Tribune’s correspondent, the occupation forces arrested the students during their sit-in inside the university campus after storming them at dawn on Monday, after besieging them inside the university campus and assaulting a number of them and the university security before they withdrew.
According to the two institutions, “the occupation forces continue to carry out widespread raids and abuse during arrest campaigns, severe beatings, and threats against detainees and their families,” in addition to widespread sabotage and destruction of Palestinian homes, according to data from the Commission and the Club, at the end of December 2023.
The occupation has arrested approximately 5,875 Palestinians since the aggression on Gaza, and transferred 1,970 of them to administrative detention, bringing the number of detainees in the occupation prisons to about 8,800, including more than 80 female prisoners.
Scenes of confrontations between Palestinians with the occupation forces following the storming of the town of Beit Laqya, west of Ramallah#Gaza_War #video pic.twitter.com/oVEYiYoCTa
– Tel Aviv Tribune Palestine (@AJA_Palestine) January 15, 2024
Settler attacks
In light of the tense atmosphere taking place in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported that a number of settlers threw stones at Palestinian vehicles on the main street of the town of Huwwara, south of Nablus.
Huwwara Main Street witnesses repeated assaults and attacks by settlers, including throwing stones at Palestinian vehicles, destroying shops, and forcing their owners to close them.
Settlers also attacked a shepherd in the town of Madama, south of Nablus, while he was herding sheep in the northern area of the town, adjacent to the Yitzhar settlement. They beat him and took him to one of the nearby camps, before he was released.
These attacks came in the wake of a large, armed group of settlers attacking the village of Burin in the Nablus Governorate yesterday, Sunday.
For its part, the Palestinian Authority condemned “in the strongest terms the violations and crimes of the occupation forces and settler militias.”
A Palestinian Foreign Ministry statement said, “The attack by armed groups affiliated with Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir on West Bank villages detonates the situation,” adding that the ruling Israeli right is creating escalation to implement the version of destruction and displacement in the Gaza Strip on the West Bank.
According to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, the Israeli occupation army and settlers carried out 12,161 attacks during the past year, including 5,308 after October 7, including 2,410 attacks carried out by settlers.
25 Bedouin communities were displaced in the West Bank and the East Jerusalem desert during the year, including 22 communities after the Al-Aqsa Flood Battle.
Press coverage | Scenes showing the withdrawal of part of the occupation army tanks from the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/DcOT9MKOZC
– Al-Qastal News (@AlQastalps) January 15, 2024
Israeli fears
Haaretz newspaper said that the occupation army transferred Duvdovan’s special unit from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank, amid fears of deteriorating security conditions in the occupied West Bank.
According to the newspaper, Israeli security officials said, “The situation in the West Bank is on the verge of explosion,” and indicated that from the army’s point of view, the withdrawal of the Special Forces unit from Gaza represents a concession to a significant force in the war effort, without specifying the number of members of the unit who were withdrawn. From the sector.
This decision came in the wake of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant’s statements in which he said, “The presence of a strong Palestinian authority is an Israeli security interest.”
Gallant warned of the explosion of the situation in the West Bank, as a result of preventing the entry of Palestinian workers into Israel, and the continued prevention of transferring Palestinian tax funds since the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood.