The Israeli army carried out several raids in the occupied West Bank as heavy fighting continued in the Gaza Strip, a day after the United States used its veto at the United Nations Security Council to block overwhelming demands of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The raids that began overnight and continued on Saturday took place near Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron, as at least 15 Palestinians were arrested across the region, Reuters reported. Tel Aviv Tribune Palestinian Prisoners Society.
A teenager was killed by Israeli forces in Dura, south of Hebron, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
Meanwhile, Sari Yousef Amr, a 25-year-old Palestinian, who was shot dead by Israeli forces earlier on Saturday, later died, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Amr was injured during the raid in Dura, with Wafa quoting his father as saying that Israeli forces fired live ammunition at his house before arresting Amr and his brother Suhaib.
The ministry said at least 273 people, including 63 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted.
Attacks by the Palestinian armed group Hamas that day prompted Israel to launch a massive air and ground offensive in Gaza that killed nearly 17,500 people. In Israel, the death toll stands at 1,147.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah, said raids were carried out daily in several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank.
“Israel is even holding people who were released under the last (truce) agreement,” she said, which saw the exchange of prisoners held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons. Some prisoners were detained and beaten before being released again.
Although Israeli forces have not re-arrested any of the more than 200 Palestinians released under the temporary pause, that could soon change with the surge in raids in the occupied West Bank, Ibrahim said.
“The Palestinians say it could take a few minutes before (Israeli forces) arrest these prisoners,” she said, noting that the number of Palestinian arrests is increasing every day.
In Jericho, a 15-year-old boy was detained for 2.5 hours, beaten and then released, according to our correspondent.
During the first four days of a week-long truce between Israel and Hamas, Israel released 150 Palestinian prisoners. Over the same four days, Israel arrested at least 133 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Palestinian prisoners’ associations.
More than 3,600 people have been arrested since the Hamas infiltration and attack on October 7.
In Jenin, Israeli forces on Saturday arrested four brothers of Bilal Diab – a suspected member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group, while a minor was arrested in Qalqilya. At least four Palestinians were arrested in Ramallah, and more in Bethlehem and Hebron.
Bombing of Gaza
Israeli military planes pounded parts of northern, central and southern Gaza.
Strikes took place on the southern town of Khan Younis, and at least five people were killed in another attack in Rafah – a town designated as safe by the Israeli military, the Gaza health ministry said .
Many of Gaza’s 1.9 million Palestinians who have been displaced by the war have headed south, turning Rafah, near the Egyptian border, into a vast camp of hopelessness and despair as the Israeli offensive widens.
“In Khan Younis, there was incessant artillery fire and aerial bombardment on the eastern and central sides. Israeli military vehicles continued to advance towards the center of the city, very close to the vicinity of Nasser Hospital,” said Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafa.
“A house was targeted and an entire family, 13 people, was killed this morning,” he said.
Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, was also targeted.
“This area has been described as a safe zone by the Israeli army, which is why there are so many displaced people here. The survivors try to help the injured. The state of destruction is enormous and it is very difficult to rescue the injured. There is no equipment and everyone, including the rescuers, is using their hands to remove the rubble,” declared our colleague from Tel Aviv Tribune Arab.
“People haven’t eaten for days.”
Large areas of Gaza have been reduced to rubble and the UN says around 80 percent of the population has been displaced, with severe shortages of food, fuel, water and medicine.
Mahmoud said Rafah residents lack all the basics that could help them survive.
“People here haven’t eaten for two days. If people don’t die from bombing, they could starve,” he said.
He added: “The situation is very desperate. It’s very cold and windy…and there’s a risk of flooding if it starts to rain. The tents are very small and unsuitable for living in. »
Meanwhile, as the death toll among medical personnel in the conflict rises, more than a dozen World Health Organization member states submitted a draft resolution Friday urging Israel to meet its obligations in under international law to also protect medical and humanitarian personnel in Gaza. such as hospitals and other medical establishments.
Only 14 of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals were functioning, according to the UN humanitarian agency OCHA.