Israeli forces detain 70 Palestinians in West Bank raids

Israeli forces arrested around 70 Palestinians during extensive raids across West Bank governorates, including Jerusalem, from yesterday until Saturday morning. Hundreds of residents were subjected to field interrogations.

According to the Palestinian news agency Wafa, the Palestinian Prisoners Club said Israeli forces continue their assault on the West Bank, including Jerusalem. The group noted that this aggression has not ceased since the war, but has instead intensified with each incident, through expanded arrests, raids, and mistreatment of residents.

The club documented around 70 arrests since yesterday until dawn today across various West Bank governorates, with some detainees later released. Most of those arrested were former prisoners who had spent years in Israeli jails, and many of those interrogated in the field were also ex-detainees, including some released in prisoner exchanges.

The raids targeted hundreds of homes in Hebron, forcing some residents to leave specific areas of the city. Dozens of houses were turned into military posts used for field interrogations, and homes and their contents were subjected to extensive damage and searches.

The Prisoners Club noted that the raids and arrests were not limited to Hebron but extended to several governorates, particularly targeting the homes of former prisoners, released detainees, and families of those killed.

Among the incidents was a raid on the home of released prisoner Nael Barghouthi in the town of Kobar near Ramallah, which was extensively damaged. Homes of other released prisoners were also targeted, with arrests reported in Qalqilya, Jenin, Nablus, Jericho, Salfit, Tubas, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, and Jerusalem.

These actions included warnings against any political or organizational activity, alongside the distribution of leaflets containing threats in several West Bank towns. This indicates that the aim goes beyond arrests to intimidating the community and restricting its right to expression and public activity.

The club stressed that Israeli forces use every attack on their soldiers as a pretext to escalate retaliatory policies against Palestinians, including expanding arrests and raids, demolishing homes, forced displacement, and imposing further restrictions and blockades.

These policies are part of a systematic approach, reinforced by military checkpoints and iron gates, including so-called "yellow gates," whose impact has intensified since the war, tightening control over town and governorate entrances and restricting residents' movement.

The club emphasized that these practices cannot be seen as temporary measures or mere fallout from field incidents, but rather as part of a policy of collective punishment. All this occurs amid a lack of accountability, encouraging the continuation and expansion of such policies as part of the ongoing apartheid system in the West Bank and the broader campaign against Palestinians in Gaza.

It is noteworthy that more than 26,000 arrests have been recorded in the West Bank since the war, in addition to thousands in Gaza, and tens of thousands subjected to ongoing field interrogations across Palestinian areas, affecting all segments of society.

Separately, Israeli forces continue to impose a blockade on the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank for the second consecutive day, as part of a military operation launched on Friday. The operation has included the forced displacement of dozens of Palestinians from their homes, the demolition of a residential building and other structures, and further home raids.