Israeli crackdown in occupied West Bank intensifies, settlers cause mayhem

What the report says

Al Jazeera, citing its staff, Reuters and local sources, reported that Israeli forces expanded raids across the occupied West Bank on Sunday after a Friday gunfight in Tal, southwest of Nablus, killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ordered what the Israeli side described as a wide-scale operation following the soldiers’ deaths. The Israeli military said homes in Tal linked to Palestinians suspected of involvement were being raided ahead of possible temporary sealing and later demolition.

The report said Israeli forces stormed multiple towns and villages, imposed road restrictions and checkpoints, and detained Palestinians in several governorates. The Palestinian news agency Wafa, cited by Al Jazeera, reported arrests including 30 people in Tal, 14 in Ramallah, five in Jenin, eight in Hebron, three in Bethlehem and six in Tulkarem, as well as large raids in Jenin city and surrounding communities.

Al Jazeera also reported an escalation in settler attacks, including attempts to burn mosques in Qusra, southeast of Nablus, and Kour, south of Tulkarem. Local officials said slogans were spray-painted at the Al-Rahma Mosque in Qusra, and that worshippers stopped a fire in Kour before it reached the main mosque area. Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Ramallah reported alleged assaults on a paramedic and a man in the Nablus area, and the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported an assault on a paramedic in Masafer Yatta.

The developments come amid longstanding international criticism of Israeli settlement activity and of punitive home demolitions, which rights groups describe as collective punishment. Al Jazeera noted that the latest violence also comes ahead of Israeli elections and amid domestic protests in Tel Aviv against settler violence and the West Bank crackdown.