On Monday morning, the Israeli occupation forces demolished two houses in the city of Qalqilya in the northern West Bank, and arrested a number of students protesting inside An-Najah National University in Nablus. They also launched a campaign of raids and incursions throughout the West Bank.
The official responsible for the settlement file in Qalqilya Governorate, Muhammad Al-Sheikh, said that the demolition operation took place in the city of Qalqilya and targeted the homes of two former prisoners under the pretext of building without obtaining the necessary permits.
He added that the demolition took place in an area located within the structural plan of the city of Qalqilya and recognized by the Israeli side, adding that the occupation authorities months ago notified the owners of the two houses of the demolition decision, under the pretext of not obtaining the necessary permits, so they appointed a lawyer and took the necessary measures, and yet the demolition took place.
The Palestinian official did not rule out that the demolition would be in retaliation against the owners of the two houses, and as part of a new policy of the right-wing Israeli government whose goal is to demolish quickly and not wait for court decisions.
The bombing of these two houses brought the total number of houses and facilities demolished by the occupation forces since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza to 21.
Storming An-Najah University
At dawn on Monday, occupation soldiers stormed the old campus of An-Najah National University in the city of Nablus and arrested a number of students protesting inside, in the first Israeli raid on the university since its siege in 1992, according to the official Palestinian News Agency (Wafa).
Anadolu Agency quoted an eyewitness as saying that about 25 students had been staging a sit-in for days inside the university campus to achieve demands related to their university life, but an Israeli force stormed the university, beat its guards, and arrested the protesting students.
The university condemned in a statement the occupation storming its campus, arresting a number of its employees, assaulting them, and causing destruction to its property and buildings, considering that the storming constitutes a flagrant violation of all international norms and conventions that criminalize violating the sanctity of educational institutions and universities.
The university held the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the safety of its employees and students who were arrested, adding that it would assign its lawyer to defend the detained students.
Also in the city of Nablus, groups of settlers stormed at dawn today the outskirts of the village of Burin, south of the city, attacked a house and burned a vehicle.
In addition to Nablus, the occupation forces stormed many areas of West Bank cities and towns, including the cities of Al-Bireh and Ramallah and the villages of Kober and Beit Rima to their north, in addition to storming the cities of Bethlehem and Jericho and several areas in the Hebron Governorate, including the city of Yatta, south of the governorate.
5 martyrs
Yesterday, Sunday, 5 Palestinians were martyred in the cities of Al-Bireh, Jericho, and Hebron by bullets from the occupation forces.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that among the martyrs were 3 children. The occupation soldiers killed two of them at the northern entrance to the city of Al-Bireh and detained the body of one of them, while the third child was killed in Ain Al-Sultan camp in Jericho. The occupation forces had killed two other young men in the town of Sa’ir, northeast of the city of Hebron.
Thus, the number of those killed by occupation soldiers and settlers in the West Bank since the beginning of the war on Gaza, which entered its 101st day, rose to 352 martyrs, including 33 who were martyred since the beginning of this year.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that about 4,000 Palestinians were injured in confrontations and attacks by occupation forces and settlers since October 7.
Since the outbreak of the war on Gaza on October 7, the Israeli occupation army has intensified its operations in the West Bank and increased incursions into cities and camps, leaving hundreds of martyrs and thousands wounded.
Gallant: The West Bank is on the verge of explosion
This was accompanied by a warning issued by Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant that the situation in the West Bank was on the verge of explosion against the backdrop of the deteriorating economic situation and the prevention of the entry of Palestinian workers from the West Bank into Israel.
Gallant’s warnings came during a meeting he chaired at the headquarters of the Central Region Command, north of occupied Jerusalem, in the presence of senior Israeli army commanders in the West Bank.
The minister warned that Israel would continue to withhold Palestinian tax revenues owed to the Israeli government and not allow workers to enter Israel.
In a press statement later reported by the Israeli media, Gallant also accused the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) of working to link the war in the Gaza Strip with the West Bank and igniting a comprehensive war in the region.
He stressed that Israel is obligated to prevent this by resolving these two issues (withholding tax revenue funds and preventing Palestinian workers from entering Israel), because delaying them would harm the objectives of the Israeli war against Hamas in Gaza, as he put it, considering that the presence of a strong Palestinian authority It is an Israeli security interest.
Military council
Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah movement, announced the formation of a unified military council that will include resistance elements of various names under one command to manage battles with the occupation on all fronts.
The Al-Aqsa Brigades – on the anniversary of the passing of its founder in Palestine, Raed Al-Karmi – affirmed its continuation of armed resistance and defense of the Palestinian people.
The military wing of the Fatah movement called on the Palestinian Authority to stop pursuing and arresting resistance fighters, and to release those detained by the Authority. It also called on it to support the resistance.