Israel-Hamas War Latest Updates: Blinken Heads to Middle East

The Palestinian Prisoners Membership, a nongovernmental rights group, mentioned in a press release that Israeli forces made the arrests in Nur Shams, a neighborhood close to the town of Tulkarem. It mentioned that Israeli forces had transferred greater than 100 Palestinians to a different space, and interrogated an estimated 500 folks, together with ladies and youngsters.

Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, a spokesman for the Israeli army, mentioned the operation in Nur Shams lasted greater than 40 hours and “destroyed many explosives and detained dozens of terror suspects.”

Wafa Awwad, a journalist for the official Palestinian information company, Wafa, was amongst these arrested, his outlet and The Palestinian Prisoners Membership mentioned. Palestinian information media reported raids in Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem, Nablus and Jenin, amongst different areas within the occupied West Financial institution.

The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Well being reported that Asid Jawad Bani Odeh, 29, was shot within the chest and killed throughout a raid by Israeli forces in Tamun, a village within the northern West Financial institution.

Photographs from Nur Shams and Sir, a village close to Jenin, confirmed residents in each websites assessing the injury from clashes on Thursday. They inspected scorched and crumbling buildings, and home windows and partitions punctuated by bullets.

Although the conflict between Israel and Hamas has been concentrated within the Gaza Strip because it started nearly three months in the past, violence has additionally surged within the West Financial institution. The Israeli army has carried out frequent raids throughout the West Financial institution, a few of them lethal, and has made 1000’s of arrests. Violence between Palestinians and Israeli civilians within the space has escalated.

Throughout a go to to the West Financial institution on Thursday, Benny Gantz, a member of Israel’s conflict cupboard, mentioned that the Israeli army would combat in opposition to terrorism wherever it encounters it.

“We’re conserving our deal with eradicating the menace posed by Hamas, however we’re not forgetting that our aim is to take away terror threats from all of our borders,” he mentioned, in response to Israel’s N12 information channel.

He added that defending Israeli settlements was a “central concern,” and that Israeli army forces have expanded their presence within the space.

Israeli settlements within the West Financial institution, which Israel captured within the 1967 conflict, are thought of unlawful by america and lots of different international locations around the globe. The United Nations and lots of Palestinians view the territory as a part of a future Palestinian state, which the settlements have made steadily much less tenable.

After Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing authorities got here into energy a yr in the past, it accredited permits for 13,000 new housing models and has pushed to broaden settlements within the West Financial institution.

Settler violence in opposition to Palestinians was on the rise earlier than the conflict and has escalated sharply since Oct. 7, when Hamas launched its assault on Israel. The Palestinian Well being Ministry has mentioned that 313 Palestinians have been killed throughout the West Financial institution since Oct. 7 in clashes with Israeli troops and armed extremist settlers.

On Wednesday, Ayman Safadi, Jordan’s international minister, condemned assaults on the West Financial institution on social media and warned that “everybody can pay the value” for failing to curb extremism.

“Igniting the West Financial institution and Lebanon is the aim of the extremist agenda within the Israeli authorities, which continues to destroy Gaza to lengthen its political management and drag the West right into a regional conflict,” he mentioned.

The Palestinian Prisoners Membership has mentioned that arrests made within the West Financial institution have pushed the variety of Palestinians in Israel jails to a 14-year excessive. A lot of these detained are being held with out a cost or trial.

Talya Minsberg and Abu Bakr Bashir contributed translation.