Israeli forces continue raid in West Bank town, in move slammed as 'collective punishment'

Israeli forces continued raiding the occupied West Bank town of Qabatiya for a second day on Saturday, besieging it and threatening to demolish the home of a suspected Palestinian attacker, in what has been dencouned as Palestinians as collective punishment.

It comes after the Israeli army sent large reinforcements to the town on Friday following a stabbing and vehicle-ramming attack in the Israeli Beit Shean and Afula areas that killed a man and a woman.

The Israeli police have said the alleged attacker was a 34-year-old Palestinian resident of Qabatiya who was taken to hospital after being shot.

Qabatiya Mayor Ahmad Zakarnah told The New Arab’s sister site, Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, that Israeli forces continued to place the town under siege as of Saturday morning, closing its entrances and streets and carrying out house raids and arrests.

The Israeli operation has brought life to a near-halt in the town.

Zakarnah said Israeli soldiers had turned several people’s homes into military posts since Friday evening, as searches continued in different neighbourhoods.

Israeli forces bulldozed one of the streets in the Jabal al-Zakarnah area, he added.

The family home of Ahmed Abu al-Rab – the suspect behind Friday’s attack – was raided on Friday.

Al-Araby Al-Jadeed said his father and brother were detained, while Israeli authorities took measurements of their house to demolish it.

Israeli authorities have long torn down the family homes of suspected Palestinian attackers, a practice slammed by rights groups.

Elsewhere in the occupied territory, Israeli forces cut off the entrances into several Palestinian villages west of Ramallah after reports of gunfire at a military checkpoint, which later became clear was due to hunting activity and not an attack.

Also at dawn, Israeli settlers raided the Palestinian Shakara community east of Duma in the northern West Bank, using tractors to try to run over foreign activists who were documenting Israeli violations in the area.

In the Bethlehem governorate, residents of the Arab al-Rashayda community south of the city confronted a settler attack that targeted a residential home Friday evening.

Military raids and settler attacks have worsened since the start of the war on Gaza in October 2023, and have markedly increased this year.

Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of the war on Gaza, according to Palestinian figures, with thousands more wounded.

The military operations have also displaced about 50,000 Palestinians from their homes, according to official data, and devastated the infrastructure in many towns and refugee camps.

Israel has meanwhile continued to greenlight the expansion of illegal settlements in the West Bank.