Israeli forces beat Palestinians in occupied West Bank, illegal settlers torch council building
Illegal settlers set fire to storage facility at village council building near Nablus.
Israeli forces beat four Palestinians in separate incidents in the occupied West Bank, while illegal Israeli settlers set fire to part of a local council building, Palestinian sources reported.
Three young men were injured late on Thursday after Israeli soldiers assaulted them during a raid on Aqabat Jaber refugee camp south of Jericho in the eastern West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said in a statement.
Medical teams “treated three injuries caused by beatings by Israeli forces against young men in Aqabat Jaber camp after troops raided the camp,” the organisation said.
In Salfit in the northern West Bank, Israeli soldiers beat a young man from the village of Iskaka east of the city while he was passing near the city’s northern entrance on Thursday, the Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.
The man suffered bruises from the assault and was taken to a hospital, while Israeli forces also seized about 35,000 shekels (about $11,000) he was carrying, according to WAFA.
Palestinian homes raided
Separately, illegal Israeli settlers set fire on Thursday to part of the building of the Ainabus village council south of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
Illegal settlers from the nearby Yitzhar settlement attacked the northern edge of the village and set fire to a storage facility belonging to the council building before the blaze was brought under control, WAFA reported.
Israeli forces later entered the village in large numbers and raided the homes of Mamoun Rashdan and Mohammed Rashdan, who were killed earlier on Thursday by Israeli gunfire near the Za’tara junction south of Nablus, the agency added.
Violence by illegal settlers and Israeli forces on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank has sharply increased since Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza began in October 2023, killing 1,127 Palestinians and injuring about 11,700 according to official Palestinian figures. Roughly 22,000 have been arrested.
In addition to killings and arrests, Israeli forces and settlers have carried out demolitions, property destruction, forced displacement, and settlement expansion across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which the international community considers occupied territory.