Israeli Occupation Forces Launch Incursions on West Bank amid Ongoing Settler Attacks
TEHRAN (Tasnim) - The Israeli occupation forces conducted a number of armed incursions across the occupied West Bank and al-Quds on Thursday, as ongoing illegal settler attacks on Palestinians and their property in Nablus and al-Khalil continued.
According to the Palestinian Prisoners' Club, thirteen Palestinians were detained by Israeli soldiers and hauled away for questioning. They are accused of taking part in popular resistance actions against settler and occupation force aggression.
The arrests follow a double blast that left one Israeli settler dead and a number of others hurt in the occupied city of al-Quds, which some Israeli commentators believe may have signaled the start of a third Intifada.
Media reports said that other armed incursions took place in the town of Azzun in the Qalqilya district, and Husan in the Bethlehem governorate.
A Palestinian boy named Montaser Abu Rumaila was also detained after being attacked by security personnel close to the Karantina crossing in al-Khalil.
Two women were reportedly hurt as a result of settlers attacking Palestinian homes in Khirbet Beit Iskaria, which is encircled by the illegal Gush Etzion settlement bloc, according to Palestinian medical authorities. In the Kasara neighborhood, south of Hebron, Zionist gangs also attacked Palestinian homes.
The Israeli civil administration issued a permission on Wednesday for 80 acres of Palestinian land in the central occupied West Bank seized in 1984 to be annexed to the illegal Israeli Tal Shahrit settlement outpost.
The administration has declared the area to be "state land" in a move which effectively grants legal recognition to the outpost by the occupation state.
According to the Commission, the land belonged to Palestinians in the villages of Bidya and Kafr Al-Dik in Salfit Governorate.
Recently on Thursday, Netanyahu's Likud has agreed to the demand of far-right lawmaker and head of the Religious Zionism party, Bezalel Smotrich to head the civil administration, the military agency that has broad powers in the West Bank, including home demolitions and lands confiscation.
More than 250 illegal settlements have been built since the 1967 occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.