Israeli forces and settlers have carried out a series of raids and attacks across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers shooting several residents in the Far’a refugee camp and settlers vandalising Palestinian homes and farmland near Nablus and Hebron, according to local media reports, alongside Israel’s relentless destruction of Gaza.
In one of several raids on Wednesday morning, Israeli troops stormed the Far’a camp near Tubas, opening fire on residents, reported the Palestinian Wafa news agency. Two young men were wounded and treated by Palestine Red Crescent Society medics. The Israeli military arrested Palestinians from the camp, as well as Tulkarem, Hebron and Jifna near Ramallah, Wafa reported.
Meanwhile, Israeli settlers set fire to part of a Palestinian home near the town of Huwara in Nablus governorate, according to the municipality’s public relations director. Footage of the attack, viewed by Al Jazeera, shows firefighters attempting to extinguish flames that had engulfed an attached outdoor structure.
Elsewhere, in the town of Sa’ir near Hebron, Israeli settlers cut down about 300 almond and olive trees owned by Palestinians – the latest in a string of attacks on agriculture in the area over the past month, according to Wafa. A separate group of Israeli settlers drove by a Palestinian neighbourhood southeast of Bethlehem and “harassed” residents, the agency added.
Attacks by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank have surged since the war in Gaza broke out in October 2023. Since then, such attacks have killed at least 1,047 Palestinians and injured more than 10,000, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Attacks by settlers, who rampage and mete out violence against unarmed Palestinians with impunity, have targeted Palestinian property more than 2,400 times in the last two years, displacing at least 3,055 people, including 1,529 children – most belonging to Bedouin or herding communities, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
