Israeli forces detain 42 Palestinians as settler attacks surge across West Bank

The Israeli army detained at least 42 people from Saturday night into Sunday as forces carried out a large-scale arrest campaign in the occupied West Bank amid a sharp rise in illegal settler attacks.  

According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, the arrests took place across several areas of the Salfit governorate in the northern West Bank, where Israeli settlers also destroyed four Palestinian-owned vehicles in eastern Salfit. 

Wafa reported that four people were arrested by Israeli forces in two villages in the Nablus area early on Sunday, with one of them injured.  

No further details were provided regarding his condition. In the southern West Bank, five others – including two former prisoners – were detained in Bethlehem after Israeli forces conducted searches of their homes. 

These developments come shortly after the release of Palestinian-American teenager Mohammed Ibrahim, who had been held in an Israeli prison for nine months. 

Israeli soldiers had taken Ibrahim from his home during a night raid when he was only 15 years old.  

According to The Guardian, relatives said he appeared severely underweight and pale following his release and is still suffering from scabies contracted while in detention. 

Ibrahim was arrested during a February raid on his family’s West Bank home, during which Israeli forces allegedly blindfolded and handcuffed him in the middle of the night.  

Court documents cited by The Guardian show he was charged with two counts of throwing objects at moving vehicles.  

During his detention, Ibrahim’s older cousin, 20-year-old American-Palestinian Sayfollah Musallet, was allegedly beaten to death by Israeli settlers in mid-July- an incident that prompted widespread condemnation, including from US ambassador Mike Huckabee, who called the killing a "criminal and terrorist act". 

The latest escalation extends a series of Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank this year, beginning in Jenin in January. 

Thousands of Palestinians have been displaced, with Israeli forces clearing out refugee camps- prompting organisations such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to accuse Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity over forced expulsions. 

On Friday, the UN condemned the “surging” killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, noting the lack of accountability “even in the rare cases when investigations are announced”.  

UN rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said rights chief Volker Turk was calling for "independent, prompt and effective investigations into the killings of Palestinians" and for those responsible to "be held fully to account". 

The UN also referenced the recent killing of two Palestinians- 37-year-old Yussef Ali Asa’sa and 26-year-old Al-Muntasir Billah Mahmud Abdullah- who were shot dead in the West Bank while apparently surrendering to Israeli forces, describing the incident as an "apparent summary execution".  

Laurence added that 21 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli security forces so far in November, including nine children. 

Violence by settlers against Palestinians has also intensified in recent months. 

On Saturday, Israeli settlers attacked several Palestinian villages in the West Bank, including shooting a Palestinian woman in the leg near Bethlehem, trespassing on private property in Burin near Nablus, and throwing stones at homes in a Bedouin community in the northern West Bank.  

According to local media and the Palestinian Red Crescent, the woman from Khallet al-Louza was also beaten. Footage of the incident, published by Palestinian outlets, shows at least three settlers involved in the attack carrying Israeli army-issued weapons. 

The Red Crescent reported that 10 other Palestinians were injured during the attack, with three taken to the hospital.