Eurasia Press & News
The West Bank on Sunday witnessed heightened levels of Israeli violence with arrests, vows to continue home demolitions and settler attacks.
Israeli forces carried out a series of raids on the occupied West Bank early on Sunday, arresting and injuring almost a dozen Palestinians, including children.
In the Hebron governorate, south of the occupied territory, at least six Palestinians were arrested, including three brothers from the town of Tarqumiya, Palestinian media reported.
Raids also took place in the village of Mazra’a al-Gharbiya, near Ramallah, where Israeli forces detained three Palestinians during the incursion, including a 16-year-old boy identified as Karim Ladadwa.
In Tubas, in the north of the territory, two men were arrested while passing through the Awarta checkpoint in Bazariya, near Nablus.
Several Palestinians, including children, suffered from suffocation at the hands of the Israeli army who fired tear gas canisters during a raid in the town of Al-Khader in the Nablus governorate.
Clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian residents also occurred after the military stormed the city of Qalqilya.
Also on Sunday, illegal Israeli settlers forced Palestinian farmers in the northern Jordan Valley to leave grazing lands from which their livestock are fed, in another provocative act by settlers.
Rights activist Aref Daraghmeh told the Palestinian news agency Wafa that the settlers “forced residents to leave their pastures and chased their livestock east of al-Farisiya in the northern Jordan Valley”.
He added that the area has witnessed an escalation in such provocative acts against locals and their properties amid fears that the area will be depopulated from its Palestinian residents, and replaced with Israelis.
Settlers have been increasingly carrying out arson attacks, vandalising and theft of Palestinian properties and their crops. A number of outposts, illegal under both international and Israeli law, have been established over the years.
Israel demolishes Tulkarem homes despite court freezing order
Meanwhile, a Palestinian official confirmed on Saturday that the Israeli army is continuing its home demolition campaign in the Tulkarem camp, despite a court order freezing the military order to destroy over 100 Palestinian residential buildings.
Local governor Abdullah Kamil said in a statement obtained by the Turkish Anadolu agency that “the occupation army insists on continuing its aggression by carrying out demolitions targeting 104 buildings in the Tulkarem camp.”
Earlier this week, the Israeli Supreme Court issued a decision “temporarily freezing the demolition orders and preventing their implementation until further notice”.
The legal challenge was filed by the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Adalah.
The residential buildings contain around 400 housing units – home to at least 2,000 Palestinians.
The Israeli army claims the buildings are being used for “military-operational purposes” but has failed to provide evidence backing such. The mass demolition order was issued by the Israeli army on 30 June.
Since January this year, Israeli forces dramatically escalated their raids and military operations in some of the West Bank’s most prominent refugee camps, including Jenin and Nur Shams.
