Escalation in the West Bank: Raids, Arrests, and Injuries from Bullets and Gas

Israeli occupation forces launched a large-scale raid campaign at dawn today, Saturday, targeting several towns and villages throughout the occupied West Bank, during which they used live ammunition and tear gas extensively, leading to injuries and arrests among Palestinians.

In the village of Nabi Saleh, northwest of Ramallah, local sources reported that the occupation forces arrested a man, his wife, and their son, in addition to a number of other residents of the village, in a large-scale search and raid campaign.

In the Jerusalem Governorate, the occupation forces stormed the town of Biddu, northwest of the city, and fired live ammunition and gas bombs intensively before arresting a group of Palestinian youths, according to local sources. The raids also affected the Qalandiya camp and the town of Al-Ram, north of Jerusalem, amid a heavy military deployment.

In the village of Madama, south of Nablus, the Red Crescent ambulance teams dealt with an emergency humanitarian case, where a 20-day-old infant suffered severe suffocation as a result of inhaling tear gas fired by the occupation forces, and was immediately transferred to the hospital for treatment.

The head of the Madama village council confirmed that the occupation soldiers fired gas bombs randomly at residential homes and forced shop owners to close them, which sparked a state of panic and fear among the residents.

In a related context, three injuries arrived at Darwish Nazzal Hospital in Qalqilya, where young men from the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, west of Salfit, were transferred after being subjected to a brutal assault and severe beating by the occupation soldiers during the raids. The raids also included the suburb of Iktaba, east of Tulkarm.

These military operations come in light of a noticeable escalation in the pace of occupation and settler violence in the occupied West Bank, which is inhabited by about 2.7 million Palestinians, and is witnessing accelerated settlement expansion that undermines the chances of establishing a contiguous Palestinian state, amid international confirmations of the illegality of these settlements.