Netanyahu orders ‘wide-scale’ military offensive in occupied West Bank villages

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said Friday that they had ordered the army to launch a “wide-scale military operation” in Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank.

In a joint statement, Netanyahu and Katz also said the army had been instructed to demolish the home of a Palestinian accused of carrying out a shooting attack against occupiers near the Palestinian town of Tell in the northern West Bank.

A large Israeli military force raided the city of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank, according to an Anadolu correspondent.

The measures followed a security incident near the illegal Havat Gilad settlement, close to Nablus, that killed two Israeli soldiers and injured three others, according to an Israeli army statement.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that Palestinians had seized the weapon of a settlement security officer and opened fire on settlers.

Following the Israeli announcement of a wide-scale military operation in the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked the nearby Palestinian villages of Sarra and Urif in the Nablus governorate, an Anadolu correspondent reported.

The correspondent said occupiers set fire to a Palestinian home in Sarra and torched the outskirts of the village, while Palestinian residents confronted them by throwing stones. Occupiers also set fire to another Palestinian home in the town of Urif and vandalized residents’ property.

Earlier Friday, four Palestinians were killed and four others injured, including three critically, during an attack by Israeli forces and occupiers on Tell, southwest of Nablus, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.