Palestinian injured, 20 detained in Israeli raids in occupied West Bank amid escalation

RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

One Palestinian was injured and 20 others were detained in Israeli military raids in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, medics and rights groups said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that a young Palestinian was shot in the abdomen in the northern town of Qabatiya and was hospitalized for medical attention.

According to the witnesses, Israeli forces raided the town and began to destroy streets and infrastructure in the area.

Several homes were searched and dozens of residents interrogated in the field during the raid, they added.

Separately, Israeli forces besieged a house in Jenin in the southern West Bank amid reports of gunfire.

Meanwhile, Israeli army forces rounded up 20 Palestinians in raids in several areas in the West Bank, the Commission for Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

Three women and former prisoners were among the detainees in the raids, they said

Israeli army forces also raided the city of Hebron and demolished parts of a residential building in the area, witnesses said.

The army claims that the building was built on the rubble of a house of a Palestinian accused by Tel Aviv of involvement in a shooting attack last year.

At least 969 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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