The Israeli military launched a large-scale security operation across the occupied West Bank on Sunday, storming several Palestinian towns and detaining dozens of residents following a deadly shootout near Nablus, Al Jazeera and Reuters reported. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the sweeping crackdown after four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers were killed during a confrontation in the village of Tal. Alongside the official military offensive, groups of armed Jewish settlers marauded through rural Palestinian communities, attacking residents, scrawling graffiti, and attempting to set fire to at least two local mosques.
Local authorities in the town of Qusra, located southeast of Nablus, reported that settlers infiltrated the newly constructed Al-Rahma Mosque during the night and set the structure ablaze. Abdel Azim Wadi, head of the Qusra village council, stated that attackers spray-painted Hebrew slogans promising revenge on the building`s exterior walls before flames consumed portions of the facility. Video footage verified by international media organizations showed heavy fire burning inside the mosque compound. In a separate incident in the village of Kour, south of Tulkarem, local worshippers managed to extinguish a fire started by three settlers at another mosque before the flames reached the main interior prayer area.
The Israeli Defense Forces expanded search operations into major urban centers, conducting overnight raids in Ramallah, Jenin, Hebron, Bethlehem, and Tulkarem. The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 30 individuals were arrested in Tal, the site of the initial armed confrontation. Additional detentions were documented across the territory, including 14 people in Ramallah, eight in Hebron, six in Tulkarem, five in Jenin, and three in Bethlehem. Military convoys also entered a dozen villages in the Jenin governorate, including Zababdeh, Faqqua, Yabad, Burqin, Jalbun, Qabatiya, Jalqamus, Silat al-Harithiya, al-Yamoun, Kafr Dan, Deir Abu Daif, and Zububa.
Humanitarian organizations reported growing disruptions to emergency medical services as military operations intensified throughout the occupied territory. The Palestine Red Crescent Society stated that several of its paramedics were physically assaulted by Israeli security forces while attempting to assist injured civilians in Masafer Yatta and Huwara. Israeli authorities imposed strict travel restrictions and established numerous security checkpoints along primary highways and village entrances, severely restricting movement between Palestinian towns and hindering access to local healthcare facilities.
Protests against growing settler violence also took place in Tel Aviv over the weekend, where police arrested nine individuals during a demonstration calling for government intervention against extremist groups in the West Bank. Palestinian civil society leaders warned that the combined force of state military raids and unchecked settler attacks is creating an unbearable situation for civilian populations. What remains unclear is how long the Israeli military intends to maintain the widespread travel restrictions across the West Bank and whether international diplomatic pressure will compel a halt to the escalating operations.
