The Israeli military detained several Palestinians in an overnight raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, an AFP journalist at the scene said on Friday.
When contacted by AFP, an Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid and said that "forces operated in the Nablus area to apprehend several suspects involved in terrorist activities".
"The suspects were subsequently transferred to the Shin Bet for questioning," the spokesman added, referring to the Israeli domestic intelligence agency.
An official from Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas said that "former prisoners, journalists, academics and members of the Legislative Council," were among those targeted.
The detentions "will only fuel public anger," said Abdul Rahman Shadid, a Hamas official in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Violence in the West Bank has soared since the Hamas attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war in October 2023.
Since then, Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 983 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many militants, according to health ministry figures.
Over the same period, at least 36 Israelis, including members of security forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military operations, according to official figures.
Meanwhile, the Allenby border crossing, which is the only international gateway for Palestinians to leave the West Bank that does not require entering Israel, reopened on Friday, but later than scheduled.
The crossing had been largely closed since a Jordanian truck driver transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza shot dead an Israeli soldier and a reserve officer at the border last week.
On Tuesday, Palestinian and Jordanian authorities said Israel was indefinitely closing the crossing, which Palestinians feared was retaliation by Israel for France and other Western countries formally recognizing a Palestinian state.
Israel announced on Thursday it would reopen the crossing only for passenger traffic from the next morning.
At around 11:00 am on Friday, Palestinian travelers confirmed the reopening, roughly three hours later than scheduled.
Thousands of people gathered in front of the terminal, an AFP journalist on the scene reported.
AFP
Comments