Israeli army arrests 13 more Palestinians in West Bank raids

RAMALLAH/ISTANBUL

At least 13 Palestinians were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Sunday.

Israeli forces searched several homes in the city of Qalqilya and arrested five people, the official news agency Wafa reported.

Four more people were taken into Israeli custody in Nablus city and one in Jenin in the occupied territory, Wafa said.

Israeli forces also detained three Palestinians in the town of Silwad in the central West Bank.

The new arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 15,700, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

Over the past few years, the Israeli military has conducted regular raids in the West Bank, which have escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 937 Palestinians have since been killed and over 7,000 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.