3 injured as Israeli army, illegal settlers launch parallel assaults in occupied West Bank

By Aysar Alais and Tarek Chouiref
RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL (AA) – Israeli forces injured three Palestinians and detained 18 others during a series of raids across the West Bank on Saturday, while illegal settlers carried out fresh attacks on farmland and Bedouin communities in the occupied territory.

Local sources said three young men were shot in the town of Nilin, west of Ramallah, after clashes erupted during a military incursion.

In the town of Anata, northeast of Jerusalem, large numbers of troops stormed homes and detained at least 16 Palestinians after field interrogations, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Two others were taken from a taxi at an Israeli checkpoint near Nablus, while forces also carried out searches and set up roadblocks in Hebron, where residents reported property damage and harassment.

Separately, the Al-Baidar organization, which monitors Bedouin rights, said illegal settlers set fire to two agricultural structures in the Bedouin community of Al-‘Arara east of Jerusalem.

In Jericho’s northern village of Shalal al-Auja, armed settlers released livestock inside Palestinian residential areas, damaging property.

The Palestinian government’s Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission said Israeli forces and illegal settlers carried out 1,613 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the West Bank in August alone, including 431 assaults by illegal settlers. It said such attacks occur “almost daily” as part of a broader push to force Palestinians from their land.

Since October 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, at least 1,018 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.