RAMALLAH, Palestine / ISTANBUL

Israeli forces raided a Palestinian town south of Nablus in the northern West Bank, arresting several people and damaging property, a local official said Tuesday.

Yaqub Oweis, head of the eastern Lubban local council, told Anadolu that Israeli troops entered the town around midnight, searched several homes and damaged property inside some houses.

He said several young men were arrested, without specifying the number.

The town, home to about 4,200 Palestinians, has faced repeated closures and tightened restrictions by Israeli forces since the war in Gaza began in October 2023, Oweis said.

He added that illegal Israeli settlers have also raided the town and carried out acts of vandalism.

Eastern Lubban lies along the main road connecting Ramallah and Nablus. Several Israeli settlements and outposts have been built on land belonging to the town.

Asma al-Aboushi, a resident, recalled the Israeli raid on her home.

“They seated us all, searched the house and photographed us to check our identities. Two soldiers went down to the kitchen to search it,” she told Anadolu.

She said soldiers upstairs signaled that their colleagues in the kitchen were eating and began laughing. “They then covered their faces with masks and started eating from underneath them, looking at us to see who was paying attention,” she said.

Aboushi said the soldiers took the family’s suhoor (a pre-dawn meal) and left the house in disarray.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army on the raid.

Elsewhere, witnesses said Israeli forces raided the town of Silwad east of Ramallah, with dozens of soldiers deployed across its neighborhoods.

The Israeli military regularly carries out raids and searches in Palestinian towns and homes across the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians say the army has intensified arrest raids since the start of Ramadan last week.

On Sunday, the Palestinian Prisoner Society, a nongovernmental organization, said Israeli forces have arrested more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank since Ramadan began.

More than 9,300 Palestinians are currently held in Israeli prisons, including 66 women and 350 children, according to Palestinian data.

Violence has surged in the West Bank since the Gaza war began in October 2023. More than 1,116 Palestinians have been killed, about 11,500 wounded and roughly 22,000 arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

*Writing by Lina Altawell