Teenager killed, 15 detained in Israeli raids in occupied West Bank
Dec 10, 2023
Jerusalem [Israel], December 10: The Israeli military has carried out multiple raids in the occupied West Bank as heavy fighting continued across the Gaza Strip a day after the United States used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to block overwhelming demands for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
The raids that started overnight and continued into Saturday took place near Jenin, Qalqilya, Nablus, Jericho, Ramallah, Bethlehem and Hebron as at least 15 Palestinians were detained across the region, the Palestinian Prisoner's Society told Al Jazeera.
A teenager was killed by Israeli forces in Dura, in the south of Hebron, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.
Meanwhile, Sari Yousef Amr, a 25-year-old Palestinian, who was shot by Israeli forces earlier on Saturday subsequently died, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.
Amr was wounded during the raid in Dura, with Wafa citing his father as saying that Israeli forces fired live bullets into his home before detaining Amr and his brother Suhaib.
The ministry said at least 273 people, including 63 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7, when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict broke out.
The attacks by Palestinian armed group Hamas that day prompted Israel to begin a massive air and ground offensive in Gaza that has killed close to 17,500 people. In Israel, the death toll stands at 1,147.
Al Jazeera's Nida Ibrahim, reporting from Ramallah, said that raids have been carried out daily in several Palestinian towns and cities in the occupied West Bank.
"Israel even detains people who have been released as part of the latest [truce] deal," she said, which saw the exchange of captives held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Some of the prisoners have been held and beaten before being freed again.
While Israeli forces have not rearrested any of the more than 200 Palestinians who were released as part of the temporary pause, that could soon change with the uptick in raids in the occupied West Bank, Ibrahim said.
"Palestinians say it could be a matter of minutes, that [Israeli forces] would arrest those prisoners," she said, noting that the number of Palestinian arrests mounts every day.
A 15-year-old in Jericho was detained for 2.5 hours, beaten up and eventually released, according to the correspondent.
In the first four days of a weeklong truce between Israel and Hamas, Israel released 150 Palestinian prisoners. Over the same four days, Israel arrested at least 133 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Palestinian prisoner associations.
More than 3,600 people have been arrested since Hamas's October 7 infiltration and attack. (Agencies)
Source: Qatar Tribune