Israeli forces arrest elderly Palestinian, several others in West Bank raids

RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

The Israeli army rounded up several Palestinians, including an elderly man in his 80s, in military raids in the occupied West Bank, local sources said on Wednesday.

Army forces staged raids in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, and al-Tabaqa, south of Hebron, as well as Balata refugee camp and the city of Nablus in the northern West Bank, the sources said.

Several people were taken into custody, including Jamil Harbiyat, an 80-year-old man from al-Tabaqa.

A video shared by Palestinian activists showed Israeli forces leading Harbiyat away while he was blindfolded.

According to the sources, Israeli soldiers also searched Palestinian homes during the raids, damaging their contents.

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 in Gaza in October 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

Since the start of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, at least 993 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.

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.