The Israeli occupation forces carried out raids at dawn on Thursday in various areas of the West Bank. The raids included Deir Al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarm, the town of Tal, south of Nablus, and the Al-Arroub camp, north of Hebron. The occupation army imposed a curfew, until next Sunday, in a number of neighborhoods in the center of Hebron and forced 3 Palestinian families in two villages near the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, to evacuate their homes and turn them into military barracks.
A member of the Hebron Defense Committee (non-governmental), Arif Jaber, told Anadolu Agency that the occupation army closed several neighborhoods at six o’clock local time yesterday evening, Wednesday, and announced the imposition of a curfew under the pretext of the advent of Jewish holidays.
He added that the occupation forces prevented people from wandering in the streets and forced them to close their shops. They only allowed those returning from work to reach their homes and were not allowed to leave them.
The closure includes the Wadi Al-Hussein neighborhood, Jaber neighborhood, and Al-Salaymeh neighborhood, which is inhabited by about 2,500 people and extends on both sides of a street hundreds of meters long that connects the Ibrahimi Mosque in the Old City to the Kiryat Arba settlement to the north of it.
He said that the occupation soldiers have escalated their attacks on Palestinian residents in recent days, raiding homes and neighborhoods, arresting residents, assaulting them, and subjecting their phones to searches and confiscating them.
Palestinian neighborhoods in the heart of Hebron have been subject to a strict siege since the start of the devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, including restrictions on movement and a curfew most days.
On Wednesday evening, Israel begins its celebrations on New Year’s Eve, with settler movement active in central Hebron and in the Ibrahimi Mosque.
Occupation forces storm Al-Arroub camp, north of Hebron pic.twitter.com/nS0q5R8VJY
– Al-Qastal News (@AlQastalps) October 2, 2024
Converting houses into barracks
Meanwhile, yesterday evening, Wednesday, the occupation army forced 3 Palestinian families in two villages near the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank, to evacuate their homes and turned them into military barracks.
The official Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported that the Israeli occupation forces forcibly evicted a family from their home on Wednesday evening and turned it into a military barracks in the village of Anin, west of the city of Jenin.
It quoted the owner of the house, Yasser Yassin (61 years old), as saying that the army stormed his house and forced him and his family, consisting of his wife (56 years old) and his son (30 years old), to forcibly evacuate it, and turned it into a military barracks.
He added that he had to seek refuge in his married daughter’s house in the village.
The occupation forces also forcibly evacuated the homes of the two families of citizens, Abdul Salam Ahmed Zaid and his brother Muhammad, from a two-story building in the village of Nazlat al-Sheikh Zaid, southwest of Jenin, and turned it into a military barracks.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli side in this regard, but this is not the first time that confiscated homes of Palestinian families have been turned into military barracks or observation points.
Observers believe that these policies are part of the Israeli settlement expansion that seeks to control more Palestinian lands.
In parallel with its war on the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army expanded its operations in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, the settlers expanded their attacks, which led to the killing of 722 Palestinians, including 160 children, the injury of about 6,200, and the arrest of about 11,000, according to official Palestinian sources.
With the absolute support of the United States, since October 7, 2023, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza that has resulted in more than 138,000 Palestinian deaths and injuries, most of them children and women, and more than 10,000 missing persons, amid massive destruction and famine that killed dozens of children, in one of the… The worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
