Palestinians shot, baby suffers from tear gas during Israeli raids across West Bank

Two Palestinians were injured by Israeli fire, and a Palestinian baby suffered tear-gas–induced asphyxiation during Israeli military raids across the occupied West Bank from Friday night into Saturday evening.

It comes in light of ongoing military operations across the territory where Israeli assaults have spiked in recent months.

Israeli forces shot and wounded two Palestinians north of Jerusalem Saturday evening. The Palestinian Red Crescent said in a statement that its teams treated two young men shot with live ammunition near the separation wall in the town of Al-Ram, noting that one was hit in the hand and the other in the foot.

In Hebron in the southern West Bank, local sources said the Israeli army imposed a curfew on four neighbourhoods inside the Old City to secure a settler march.

The sources added that Israeli Jewish settlers tried to provoke Palestinians during the march, while Israeli forces set up checkpoints and blocked people from entering or exiting the Old City.

Other settler attacks on Saturday saw them damage Palestinian farmland and prevent shepherds from accessing grazing areas.

Separately, overnight Friday–Saturday, a 20-day-old baby boy suffered asphyxiation after inhaling tear gas fired by Israeli forces during a raid on the village of Madama, south of Nablus. Palestinian paramedics said the infant was hospitalised.

Local sources reported that Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades and tear gas toward residents' homes and businesses after storming the village and deploying throughout its neighbourhoods.

In the Ramallah governorate, Israeli forces arrested four Palestinians from the village of Nabi Saleh at dawn after raiding and searching their homes, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

Soldiers also detained a young man, his wife, and his son for hours before releasing them.

Israeli forces also arrested several young men Friday night during a raid in the town of Biddu northwest of Jerusalem. They reportedly fired live ammunition and toxic gas canisters and deployed heavily around the town.

Soldiers also stormed the town of Dura in the southern West Bank, setting up check points before raiding Palestinian homes. At least one person was reportedly arrested, while a drone flew overhead during the operation to monitor the area.

Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General, said expanded Israeli military operations in the northern West Bank have led to new waves of displacement, school closures, and service disruptions, affecting more than 95,000 Palestinians.

He also condemned ongoing attacks by extremist Israeli Jewish settlers, which have also intensified.

Dujarric stated that settlers have carried out 1,680 attacks this year across more than 270 locations – an average of five attacks per day – resulting in extensive human and material losses.

Since the war began in Gaza in October 2023, Israeli military and settler attacks in the West Bank have killed more than a thousand Palestinians and injured nearly 11,000 others.

More than 21,000 Palestinians have also been arrested during this time, with some of them released.

Israel captured the West Bank during the 1967 Arab-Israel war and has occupied it since, expanding the construction of illegal settlements to replace Palestinian communities.