Israel arrests dozens of Palestinians in the West Bank as it attacks | Israel-Palestine War News

Israel is moving ahead with its military offensive across the occupied West Bank, arresting dozens of people following the shooting. they killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers.

On Saturday morning, Israeli forces arrested about 50 Palestinians in the village of Tal, southwest of Nablus, where Friday’s shooting took place, while attacking about 70 houses.

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Pictures posted by the Quds News Network show two blindfolded men being led away by Israeli soldiers. The arrests are part of what Israel’s military says is a “massive operation” launched in response to Friday’s shooting.

On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered a “major battle” in Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank after an attack near the illegal settlement of Havat Gilad that killed two Israeli soldiers and wounded three others.

According to sources and witnesses, Israeli settlers attacked several Palestinian neighborhoods in the Nablus district, burning Palestinian homes and other property.

The Ministry of Health of Palestine says that at least 87 Palestinians have been killed by Israel in attacks in the West Bank since the beginning of the year, 21 of them are residents, which the opposition says has been encouraged by the lack of international pressure on Israel to end the siege of Gaza, and the speeches of the right-wing ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Belize.

Albanians call attacks ‘pogroms’

The UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese on Saturday described the Israeli attacks against Palestinian civilians across the West Bank as “pogroms,” calling for an arms embargo and a freeze on trade with Israel.

“Pogroms against defenseless civilians in the West Bank, while Gaza is on fire,” Albanese wrote on X.

He accused Israeli civilians and soldiers of “joining the army” in the attack, saying responsibility was not Netanyahu’s or “a few rotten apples”.

“The arms embargo now – stop the trade now,” Albanese said, adding that this is necessary under international law.

Human rights groups in Israel have also called on countries to take urgent action to stop government-led violence in the West Bank, which has escalated since Israel launched its deadly war on Gaza in 2023.

In the West Bank, several people were also arrested in the northern city of Jenin, as well as in towns and villages throughout the province. The Israeli army occupied several buildings and sent more soldiers.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces overran Tubas in the northeast and the Far’a refugee camp in the south of the city.

The army arrived in Tubas with a large group of military vehicles and was sent to several areas, attacking houses for about three hours, reported Wafa in Palestine. Then he went to Far’a’s camp.

Israeli forces also attacked several other locations, including the village of Far’ata, east of Qalqilya, where at least eight Palestinians were injured, according to Al Mayadeen English. Aqbat Jabr refugee camp in Jericho and Kobar village in Ramallah and El-Bireh Governorate were also among the targeted areas.

Funerals were held overnight for the four Palestinians killed in Tal on Friday.

Residents say they were forced to hold the funeral at night because the Israeli authorities forbade them to hold it during the day. According to reports, only a few Palestinians were allowed to attend.

‘It’s happening in the West Bank’

The shooting at Tal was the deadliest in months, with both sides denying what happened. Israel is not allowed to enter Tal, which is under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Videos show gunmen confronting a group of Palestinians. Another video shows a Palestinian man taking a gun from a stranger before killing him in what appears to be self-defense. Israeli soldiers shot and killed Palestinians. Three other Palestinians were also killed.

Ubai Al Aboudi, a activist in Ramallah, told Al Jazeera that attacks on Palestinian villagers are systematic and carried out with impunity, describing them as “random events” but “happening in the West Bank”.

He also reported on the attack on the village of Tal on Friday, and that there was another attack last week on July 18.

“The so-called pilgrims, as the Israeli authorities called them, entered the village, burned the family’s house and the family inside, and it was surprising that the residents of Tal were able to remove that family from the house before they were burned alive,” said Al Aboudi.

Human Rights Watch has also called on the Israeli government to take immediate action to prevent immigrants from carrying out revenge attacks on Palestinians.

“The Israeli government did not stop the attack on the residents of the village of Tal, so it must now prevent retaliation against the residents and an escalation of hostilities that could make the situation worse,” said Sarah Sanbar, Israel-Palestine researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Years of lawlessness and impunity for violence have turned the West Bank into a cesspool waiting to explode, and urgent action is needed.”