Today, Thursday, Israeli occupation forces stormed several towns in the West Bank and clashed with resistance fighters in the town of Qabatiya, at a time when Israel arrested 18 Palestinians.
The Israeli army carried out a series of raids that targeted cities and towns in the West Bank, most notably the city of Tulkarm and its Nur Shams camp, in addition to the town of Umm Safa, north of Ramallah, and the village of Kafr Nimah, west of Ramallah.
The occupation army also stormed the city of Al-Bireh in the center of the occupied West Bank and raided its municipal headquarters. Local sources reported that a young Palestinian man was injured by Israeli occupation forces’ bullets during their storming of Al-Bireh.
Anatolia Agency quoted eyewitnesses that an Israeli army force stormed the town of Qabatiya amid the outbreak of armed clashes with Palestinians.
They reported that Israeli military reinforcements arrived in the town accompanied by bulldozers, and sounds of explosions and an exchange of gunfire were heard.
The Qabatiya Battalion, affiliated with the Al-Quds Brigades, said in a statement that its fighters fought fierce battles with the enemy forces storming the town, and showered it with bullets.
Arrests continue
Also in the West Bank, the Israeli army arrested 18 Palestinians, including two children, a girl, and former prisoners, during its storming of areas in the occupied West Bank.
The arrest operations were distributed among the governorates of Hebron and Bethlehem (south), Tulkarm, Nablus, Qalqilya, and Jenin (north), and Ramallah and Jerusalem (central), according to a statement issued by the Prisoners’ Affairs Authority of the PLO (governmental) and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club (Ahli).
On the other hand, sources told Tel Aviv Tribune that the Israeli occupation released the two female prisoners, Shahad and Angham Asafra, from Beit Kahil, west of Hebron, after a year of detention.
In another context, today, Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian farmers while they were working to pick olives in a village in the Nablus Governorate in the northern West Bank. The attack resulted in injuries among them and the theft of their crops.
This comes as part of the escalating settler attacks against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, that have been escalating for months.