Hendra Wijaya
Israeli forces have arrested more than 100 Palestinians throughout the occupied West Bank over the past week, according to the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS). The rights group, which documents arrests and monitors the conditions of detainees held in Israeli custody, stated that the stepped-up operations have taken place against a backdrop of ongoing violence and raids across the occupied territory.
The advocacy organization detailed that those taken into custody during the past seven days include children, media workers, and several former prisoners. Among the detained media figures are journalists Muath Amarneh and Sabri Jibril, alongside multiple other individuals who had previously served time in Israeli facilities.
The rights group highlighted the arrest of Ahmad al-Sayfi, a resident of Birzeit. Al-Sayfi had previously been held in Israeli detention before being released as part of a recent prisoner exchange agreement, only to be detained once again during the latest wave of military sweeps.
According to the PPS, the intensified arrest operations have been accompanied by severe violations against Palestinian civilians. These documented abuses include physical beatings, aggressive field interrogations, and direct threats leveled against the family members of those targeted. The organization further reported that certain operations involved extrajudicial killings.
The rights monitoring group also described extensive incursions into residential communities, where Israeli soldiers raided numerous homes, searched private properties, and inflicted substantial structural damage. In several documented instances, soldiers occupied residential houses and converted them into temporary military staging posts.
In addition to property destruction, the PPS reported that military personnel carried out sweeping cordon operations across entire neighborhoods. The group noted that in several cases, Israeli forces took Palestinian relatives into custody as a leverage tactic to exert pressure on sought-after family members.
Alongside military operations, the PPS underscored an escalation in settler attacks targeting Palestinian civilians and property. These actions have included physical assaults, the setting up of road blockades, and attacks on civilian vehicles, all carried out under the active protection of Israeli forces.
The latest wave of arrests forms part of a broader, sustained military campaign. According to the PPS, Israeli forces have apprehended more than 25,000 Palestinians across the West Bank since October 2023, while thousands of additional residents have been detained in the Gaza Strip over the same timeframe.
Localized military incursions were reported across multiple West Bank municipalities on Thursday. In the town of Burqa, situated northwest of Nablus, Israeli forces carried out a six-hour dawn raid, detaining 15 Palestinians after storming their residences, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Burqa has faced repeated incursions, settler attacks, and structural demolitions in recent weeks.
Elsewhere in the territory, Israeli forces carried out targeted detentions and seizures. In the town of Azzun, located east of Qalqilya, soldiers detained a young Palestinian man named Salloum Radwan for several hours and confiscated his commercial truck, Wafa reported.
In the central West Bank, Israeli special forces conducted an operation in Beitunia, near Ramallah. Military units entered a residential apartment, where they caused widespread destruction before arresting two Palestinian men and transporting them to an Israeli detention facility prior to withdrawing.
Meanwhile, in Battir, located west of Bethlehem, Israeli forces carried out a home demolition. South of Bethlehem, inside the Arroub refugee camp, the Israeli military confirmed it had arrested at least 20 Palestinians, alleging in an official statement that the detainees were involved in planning attacks.
Tensions also extended to occupied East Jerusalem, where groups of Israeli settlers entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Thursday morning. The visitors performed religious rituals within the site, an activity described by local correspondents as having become a regular daily occurrence.
These incursions prompted a formal warning from the Jerusalem Governorate, which cautioned that Israeli settlers could use the upcoming Jewish holiday period to alter the status quo. The governorate warned of efforts to transition from a temporal division of visiting hours toward a spatial division aimed at partitioning the holy compound.
The Palestinian presidency and the Foreign Ministry echoed these concerns, issuing joint statements emphasizing that the entire Al-Aqsa compound constitutes an exclusively Islamic holy site that must be protected from partition attempts.
In response to the heightened friction and in anticipation of the forthcoming holiday season, Israeli police announced that they have deployed additional security units and reinforcements throughout occupied East Jerusalem and across the West Bank.
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