WEST BANK – Israeli forces reported fresh arrests as they kept up raids in the northern occupied West Bank on Wednesday, a day after troops shot dead three Palestinians as part of an ongoing military operation.
Overnight, Israeli troops conducted raids in the villages of Qabatiya and Arraba, arresting about a dozen Palestinians allegedly “involved in terrorist activity” and seizing around 100 kilograms of materials used to make explosives, the military said in a statement.
The detainees were handed over to the Israeli police and the Shin Bet security agency for further investigation, the military added.
Several of those arrested, their eyes blindfolded, were escorted by Israeli soldiers to military vehicles before being taken to a building in Arraba that was used by troops as an interrogation center, an AFP correspondent reported.
In Qabatiya, army bulldozers were seen tearing up sections of road, the correspondent added.
The Israeli military frequently destroys roads in the West Bank, saying it is to prevent their use for planting improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
The raids followed the military’s announcement on Tuesday that it had killed three militants in a “counterterrorism” operation in Jenin.
The Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority confirmed the deaths and reported that a Palestinian woman was also killed Tuesday by Israeli forces.
The Israeli military has been conducting a sweeping offensive across multiple areas of the West Bank since January 21, two days after a fragile ceasefire took effect in the Gaza Strip, largely halting 15 months of war there.
The operation, dubbed “Iron Wall,” has resulted in dozens of deaths, including Palestinian children and Israeli soldiers, according to the UN.
Additionally, around 40,000 Palestinians have been displaced from areas where the army was operating.
Violence in the West Bank, which has been occupied by Israel since 1967, has escalated since the start of the war in Gaza, triggered by Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on southern Israel.
Since then, at least 910 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the Palestinian ministry of health in Ramallah.
Meanwhile, at least 32 Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during military operations, according to official Israeli figures.
AN-AFP, 12 March 2025
