WEST BANK, (PIC)
A group of Palestinian citizens were injured and others were kidnaped last evening and on Thursday after the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) stormed different areas of the West Bank.
In Nablus, local sources said that IOF clashed on Wednesday evening with local youths in the eastern area of the city and Askar camp and injured a number of them.
The Red Crescent said that a 45-year-old man was injured in his foot by IOF gunfire in the old refugee camp of Askar in Nablus City.
One citizen was taken prisoner during an IOF raid on Thursday morning in Rafidia neighborhood in Nablus.
In Ramallah, a citizen was injured yesterday in his leg when Israeli forces opened fire at local residents in Beit Rima town.
The IOF reportedly took over a house in the same town and used it as an interrogation center.
In Tubas, the IOF kidnaped yesterday two citizens from Fari’ah refugee camp.
In al-Khalil, the IOF kidnaped today 12 citizens from their homes in al-Arroub refugee camp, including two fathers along with three sons.
The IOF also raided a house in Wadi al-Hariya area in the south of al-Khalil City and stole about 40,000 shekels from it.
Three other citizens were taken prisoners during dawn and morning IOF raids on homes in Qalqilya, Dar Salah town in eastern Bethlehem and Beit Sira town in western Ramallah.
Amid further raids, airstrikes and settler attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, warned that the Israeli military’s actions risked further enflaming an “already explosive situation.”
“A major operation by Israeli security forces (ISF) in the occupied West Bank risks seriously deepening the already catastrophic situation in the occupied Palestinian territory,” OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement yesterday.
“Israel’s operations in Jenin, Tubas and Tulkarem today, and the killing of at least nine Palestinians, two of them reportedly children, take the overall death toll in the West Bank since 7 October to 637. This represents the highest number of fatalities over a period of eight months since the UN first started recording casualties in the West Bank two decades ago,” Shamdasani explained.
“Many children have been killed while throwing stones at highly protected ISF, as have other Palestinians posing no imminent threat to life or serious injury. Such unnecessary or disproportionate use of force and the increase in apparent targeted and other summary killings are alarming.”
“Thousands of Palestinians have been arbitrarily arrested and tortured, subjected to unrelenting settler violence, severe restrictions on movement and expression, their homes and property destroyed or seized, and forcibly displaced.”
“Israel, as the occupying power, must abide by its obligations under international law. The Israeli security forces’ use of airstrikes and other military weapons and tactics violates human rights norms and standards applicable to law enforcement operations. Alleged unlawful killings must be thoroughly and independently investigated and those responsible held to account,” the spokeswoman concluded.
