Israel arrests more than 100 Palestinians in the West Bank in one week as settler violence and Al-Aqsa incursions escalate

Al Jazeera reports that the Palestinian Prisoners Society (PPS) said in a statement on Thursday that Israeli forces had arrested more than 100 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank over the past week. Those detained included children, two journalists and a former prisoner released under a recent prisoner-exchange agreement.

PPS said the detainees included journalists Muath al-Amani and Sabri Jibril, as well as Ahmad Saifi from Birzeit, who had previously been released in a prisoner swap. The group said Israeli forces carried out large-scale raids on homes, searched and damaged property, and directly requisitioned some houses for military use. PPS also accused the army of conducting on-the-spot interrogations, physical assaults and threats against relatives during detention operations, and in some cases carrying out "extrajudicial executions". These allegations currently come only from the group’s own statement and have not been independently corroborated.

The group added that, since Israel launched what Al Jazeera called a "genocidal war" in October 2023, Israeli forces have arrested more than 25,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and thousands more in Gaza.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that Israeli forces arrested 15 Palestinians in a dawn raid on Thursday in Burqa, northwest of Nablus. Wafa said soldiers operated in the town for six hours, raided homes and withdrew after arresting their owners. Burqa has been repeatedly attacked by settlers and soldiers in recent weeks, and many homes have been demolished. Wafa also reported that Israeli forces detained a young man, Salloum Radwan, for several hours in Azzun, east of Qalqilya, and seized his truck.

Al Jazeera correspondent Jiwara al-Budeiri reported from Ramallah that Israeli special forces also raided the central West Bank town of Beitunia on Thursday, entering an apartment and arresting two Palestinian men. "They caused damage and destruction inside the house," al-Budeiri said. "The two men were transferred to Israeli prisons, and the special forces then withdrew." She also reported that Israeli forces demolished a house in Battir, west of Bethlehem.

In a statement, the Israeli military said it had arrested at least 20 Palestinians at the al-Arroub refugee camp south of Bethlehem, accusing them of planning attacks. The figure announced by Israel differs from the PPS count and its method of calculation.

PPS also said Israeli settlers had attacked Palestinians and their property, including through physical assaults, road blockades and attacks on vehicles. The group said the attacks took place under the protection of Israeli forces. In its report, Al Jazeera described the settlers’ continuing attacks as "pogroms".

Al-Budeiri further reported that settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday morning and performed religious rituals, describing such incursions as a daily occurrence. The Jerusalem governor’s office warned that settlers might use the approaching Jewish holidays to turn the long-standing "time-sharing" arrangement at the holy site into "spatial division", effectively partitioning the mosque compound. The Palestinian presidency and Foreign Ministry issued similar warnings, stressing that the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is an Islamic holy site. Israeli police said they had deployed additional forces in occupied Jerusalem and the West Bank during the holidays.