Islam Times - 'Israel' Launches Extensive Crackdown, Raids in West Bank

Islam Times - Israeli forces have carried out several raids across the occupied West Bank, detaining at least 18 Palestinians, including children.

The Arabic-language Wafa News Agency reported on Tuesday that at least 18 Palestinians, including children, have been arrested in several raids across the West Bank since Monday night.

Citing the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs, the report said the arrests were made in the provinces of Salfit, al-Khalil, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Nablus and al-Quds.

Earlier in the day, Wafa said that Israeli forces arrested three people in al-Khalil Province, after raiding their homes.

The regime’s troops also set up several military checkpoints in and around al-Khalil, hindering civilian movements.

Earlier reports also said two men were physically assaulted and detained north of Bethlehem.

The detainees also include seven Palestinians who were arrested when Israeli forces stormed the town of Zawiya, west of Salfit, at the dawn of Tuesday.

According to earlier reports, Israeli forces arrested one man in the village of Salem, east of Nablus, in the early hours of Tuesday.

Two minors were also arrested, while a man was injured when Israeli forces opened fire at his vehicle near Ramallah.

Also on Tuesday, three young men were detained in Qalandia Camp, north of the occupied East al-Quds.

Meanwhile, Israeli soldiers carried out a large-scale campaign of arrests in the Aida and al-Azza refugee camps near Bethlehem, detaining and beating 50 people. The detainees were later released, after some of them received summons to appear at the Israeli spy agency.

Majdi Abu Akar, the deputy secretary of the Fatah movement, was among those arrested in the Aida refugee camp.

Israel has ramped up violence against Palestinians in the West Bank since it launched a genocidal war in Gaza, killing at least 730 Palestinians, according to figures from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society say Israeli forces have abducted more than 11,900 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since October 2023.

Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7, 2023 after the Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas waged the surprise Operation al-Aqsa Flood against the occupying entity in response to the Israeli regime's decades-long campaign of bloodletting and devastation against Palestinians.

The regime’s bloody onslaught on Gaza has so far killed at least 44,466 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 105,358 others. Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under rubble.