At dawn on Wednesday, the Israeli army carried out massive incursions into cities, towns and camps in the occupied West Bank, coinciding with the ongoing aggression against Gaza, while the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that this Israeli escalation heralds an “imminent explosion.”
The Israeli incursions targeted the cities of Jenin, Tulkarm, and Nablus in the northern West Bank, Ain al-Sultan camp near Jericho, Ramallah and Al-Bireh (central), and towns in the Bethlehem and Hebron governorates (south of the West Bank).
In Nablus, the Israeli army began a military operation in the city, storming it from several fronts, and deploying its snipers on the roofs of buildings.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported that Israeli special forces stormed the Blacksmiths Market inside the Old City, surrounded a house, and arrested Palestinian Nasr Mabrouka, from inside the town.
“Wafa” indicated that the occupation forces raided several homes and offices and destroyed their contents, including the café of the martyr Wadih Al-Houh and the office of the Fatah organization in the western area of the Old City on Al-Nasr Street. Explosions and intermittent clashes were also heard in several places in the city.
The army carried out a military operation in the city and camp of Jenin that lasted about 8 hours, at dawn on Wednesday, amid the outbreak of armed clashes and the sound of explosions.
Military bulldozers began to bulldoze several streets in the Jenin camp and destroyed property, while the army carried out raids on Palestinian homes, searched them, destroyed their contents, and conducted field investigations with dozens of citizens. The city of Tulkarm also witnessed similar raids, and the occupation forces arrested them. A Palestinian after storming his family’s home in the northern West Bank.
In Bethlehem, the occupation forces arrested 5 Palestinians from different areas in the southern West Bank.
Wafa said that the occupation forces stormed the town of Al-Ubaidiya, east of Bethlehem, raided homes and tampered with their contents, arrested a Palestinian, and seized his vehicle.
As for Ramallah, the occupation forces arrested 4 Palestinians during their raid and raid on the homes of many citizens, tampering with and vandalizing their contents, seizing some of their property, and seizing some vehicles.
Dismemberment of the West Bank
For its part, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday evening that Israel is “dismembering” the occupied West Bank, gradually annexing it with the “occupying force,” “paralyzing” the movement of Palestinians by deploying barriers and iron gates, and perpetuating “the ugliest forms of apartheid regimes.”
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry added that the occupation authorities “impose more collective punishments on citizens in the West Bank, paralyzing their ability to move and live by dismembering them and turning them into cantons isolated from each other.”
It also spoke about deploying more “death barriers, iron gates, military towers, and closures,” which would increase the torment and suffering of the Palestinians and force them to stay for long hours at the checkpoints, including entire families with their women and children, the elderly, and the sick, according to the Palestinian Ministry’s statement.
Palestinians are also subjected to “humiliating, inhumane practices” at military checkpoints, “in a deliberate Israeli perpetuation of the ugliest forms of apartheid regimes and the gradual colonial annexation of the West Bank by the occupying force,” according to the statement.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry pointed out “a complete Israeli invasion and reoccupation of the West Bank areas, and an attempt to copy the destruction committed by Israel in Gaza on the West Bank, especially its camps.”
It held the Israeli government “full and direct responsibility for the results of this dangerous escalation (in the West Bank),” warning against “Israel’s deliberate push of the situation in the West Bank toward an imminent explosion.”
It also warned of “the consequences of violations and crimes committed by the occupation forces and settler militias against Palestinian citizens in the West Bank,” according to the statement.
Record numbers
During the year 2023, 25 Palestinian Bedouin communities, including 1,517 individuals, were displaced, according to data from the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission (governmental).
The number of Israeli military checkpoints in the West Bank is 707, including 140 new checkpoints and obstacles placed after the outbreak of war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, according to data from the Applied Research Institute – ARIJ (non-governmental).
Acts of violence committed by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank recorded a record number in 2023.
Since the start of the aggression against Gaza last October, the occupation has intensified its military operations in the West Bank, and increased the pace of incursions and raids into cities, towns, and camps, resulting in the martyrdom of 341 Palestinians, the injury of about 3,950, and the arrest of 5,755, according to official sources.
