The head of the Hamas political bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, described what is happening in the West Bank as dangerous, and said that the enemy is abusing the people there, noting that the number of martyrs has reached more than 350 martyrs since the Al-Aqsa flood.
On the other hand, Israeli media said that security leaders warned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the West Bank was approaching a major escalation.
Martyrdom of a young man
A Palestinian was killed by Israeli army gunfire for allegedly attempting to carry out a stabbing attack in the West Bank. The occupation forces launched new raids into a number of cities and villages and arrested a number of Palestinians.
A statement from the occupation army stated that a young Palestinian man was killed by army gunfire after he attempted to carry out a stabbing attack at the Atirot settlement, north of Ramallah, without any casualties among the forces.
Immediately after the incident occurred, the occupation forces closed the area and began sweeping the area, preventing Palestinians from moving between villages near the site of the alleged attack.
In a related context, 14 Palestinians were injured by occupation bullets during their storming of the old Askar camp, east of the city of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, where young men confronted the invading forces.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) reported that a special force supported by large forces from the occupation army stormed the eastern area of the city of Nablus, and the old Askar camp to the east, from several axes. The occupation forces, accompanied by a military bulldozer, also stormed Balata camp to the east, and began bulldozing one of its streets.
In the context of the incursions that have not stopped in the West Bank since the Battle of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the occupation forces stormed the village of Azzun Atma, south of Qalqilya, searched several shops, seized surveillance camera recordings, and set up a checkpoint in the middle of the village.
As part of the harassment of the Palestinians, the occupation closed the Enab military checkpoint east of Tulkarm.
This checkpoint is considered the main corridor taken by citizens from Tulkarm, through the town of Anabta, to Nablus Governorate and the rest of the West Bank governorates.
Funeral of martyrs
In a related matter, the people of Tulkarm today mourned the bodies of three martyrs assassinated by the occupation forces, and the funeral procession of the bodies of two of them began from the Martyr Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarm, while the body of the third martyr was funeral in the city of Tulkarm.
The head of the Popular Committee for Tulkarm Camp Services, Faisal Salama, said that Tulkarm has become in open war with the occupation, which is oppressing the city and its camps and assassinating in a barbaric and cold-blooded manner.
The comprehensive strike took place in the city of Tulkarm, its suburbs and its camps, in response to the call of the national and Islamic forces to mourn the souls of the martyrs.
Special forces of the occupation had assassinated the three resistance fighters and mutilated the body of one of them during their storming of the city.
A video clip showed the occupation forces shooting a group of young men, including the three martyrs, before one of the occupation military vehicles participating in the operation ran over the body of one of them twice.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry condemned the occupation army’s “running over” the body of one of the martyrs, and considered that “running over the Tulkarm martyr is a moral degradation and a translation of Israel’s official instructions and incitement,” and reflects a “racist fascist-colonial mentality.”
Arrests
In a related context, the occupation forces arrested, at dawn today, 4 Palestinians, who are liberated prisoners from the town of Ya`bad, south of Jenin.
A statement by the Palestinian Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club stated that the occupation forces arrested at least 25 Palestinians from the West Bank since yesterday evening and today dawn.
The statement stated that the number of Palestinian detainees in the occupied West Bank has reached 5,755 since October 7.
This came in a statement, and the two institutions said that the total number of arrests after October 7 of last year rose to more than 5,755, and includes those who were arrested from homes, through military checkpoints, those who were forced to surrender themselves under pressure, and those who were held hostage.
The statement indicated that the total number of Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons until the end of December 2023 amounted to about 8,800, including more than 80 female prisoners.
Since the outbreak of the devastating war on the Gaza Strip on October 7, the Israeli army has intensified its military operations in the West Bank, and increased the pace of incursions and raids into cities, towns, and camps.
The occupation operations in the occupied West Bank have caused the death of 340 Palestinians since October 7.
Two houses bombed
The occupation forces also bombed the homes of the martyrs Murad and Ibrahim Nimr in Sur Baher, south of occupied Jerusalem.
A large force of the occupation army stormed the town, raided the homes of the two Nimr brothers, and forced the citizens in the neighboring homes to leave in the morning hours.
The occupation forces evacuated the residents of the area surrounding the homes of the two martyrs in the residential neighborhood, in preparation for their explosion, after planting explosives in the two homes.
The two Qassam brothers, Ibrahim and Murad Nimr, carried out an operation on the main street near the Ramot settlement in Jerusalem at the end of last November, during which an Israeli soldier was killed instantly, and then the deaths of the wounded continued until it rose to 4 pm the same day.
Two days after the operation was carried out, the occupation forces closed the homes of the two martyrs and sealed the doors and windows to prevent entry to them until the decision to demolish them was implemented.