West Bank’s Tulkarm reels under Israeli mass arrests seen as collective punishment

RAMALLAH, Palestine/ISTANBUL

Israeli forces detained nearly 1,300 Palestinians in the West Bank city of Tulkarm within two days last week, in a sweeping crackdown that local officials and analysts say amounts to collective punishment against civilians.

The raids followed a Sept. 11 roadside blast that lightly injured two Israeli soldiers. In response, troops stormed neighborhoods, dragging men from homes, shops, and vehicles before forcing hundreds into lines and marching them through the streets to open squares.

Videos from the city showed detainees blindfolded and handcuffed, surrounded by armored jeeps and soldiers.

Humiliation as policy

“This was not about security; it was about breaking people’s spirit,” said Faisal Salama, Tulkarm’s deputy governor. “Pharmacists were seized from their pharmacies, drivers from their cars, and even pedestrians walking by. For hours, they were herded into public spaces and treated like criminals.”

He said the operation was part of an eight-month Israeli military campaign in the city and nearby refugee camps, where residents face weekly incursions and widespread home demolitions.

Analysts see echoes of past repression

Suleiman Basharat, director of the Yabous Center for Strategic Studies, said the sweep resembled tactics Israel employed during the first Intifada in 1987.

“Mass detentions, closures, and restrictions on movement -- these are classic tools of collective punishment,” he told Anadolu. “The army hopes to extract intelligence while intimidating the population into silence.”

He added the campaign also serves to “train troops in urban operations and create deterrence before any new attacks occur.”

Firsthand accounts

Pharmacist Yazid Saraghli, one of those detained, described how he and his colleagues were taken with customers during their workday.

“Everyone in our path was arrested -- men pulled from homes, passersby on the street. We were marched in a column and dumped in a large square,” he recalled. “At one point, we were more than a thousand people, many with their hands bound and eyes covered.”

Saraghli said he treated detainees who collapsed during the ordeal, including a diabetic patient and another with heart problems. “Most of us were never questioned. We were simply released in groups after hours of humiliation.”

Wider campaign of destruction

Since January, Israel has been conducting a sustained military operation in the Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps. Local committees say more than 600 homes have been razed and nearly 2,600 others damaged.

Officials say the demolitions form part of a plan announced in May to remove 106 structures on the pretext of opening roads and reshaping the area. The scheme covers 58 buildings in Tulkarm camp, including over 250 apartments and dozens of shops, and 48 in Nur Shams.

Since October 2023, at least 1,042 Palestinians have been killed and more than 7,000 injured in the West Bank by Israeli forces and illegal settlers, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

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.