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Tell raids after shooting
Israeli forces arrested more than 70 Palestinians in a West Bank operation after a Friday terror shooting near Gilad Farm, a settlement southwest of Nablus, in which two Israelis were killed and several others were wounded.
“Israel is pushing ahead with its military crackdown across the occupied West Bank, arresting dozens following a shooting that killed four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers”
The Jerusalem Post said the overnight crackdown followed an IDF statement that Palestinians began throwing rocks before one of them opened fire, and it identified the dead as 32-year-old Master-Sergeant (Res.) Benayahu Melet and 27-year-old IDF Maj. Yuval Ezra.
In the village of Tell near Nablus, Reuters reported that Walid Zidan said around 70 people from Tell were detained and questioned at a field interrogation centre set up in a house, with 10 to 12 released so far.
The Times of Israel said the IDF confirmed the raid on Tell and that soldiers detained 11 wanted Palestinians and questioned another 80, while the military also said it apprehended over 70 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank overnight.
In parallel, the IDF said it bolstered its forces in the West Bank by five companies and canceled weekend leave for troops, while setting up checkpoints and closing gates across the territory.
Netanyahu vows action
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered a sweeping crackdown across the West Bank on Friday, including increased troop deployments, new checkpoints, and expanded counterterrorism operations, after the shooting near Gilad Farm.
Netanyahu told reporters, “We will act strongly against terrorists and their proxies, and we will not allow terrorism in Judea and Samaria to raise its head,” and the Prime Minister’s Office said Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir held a security assessment.
The Times of Israel reported that Netanyahu vowed to take “powerful action” in response, including demolishing the home of the family of one of the Palestinians involved, and it said his office would accelerate approval of construction of more Israeli settlements in the area.
Shin Bet Director David Zini visited the scene and described the attack as “grave and painful,” while urging Israelis not to retaliate independently and to “place their trust in the IDF and the Shin Bet.”
The Jerusalem Post said the IDF and Shin Bet carried out arrests in Tell, with the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit and multiple brigades participating, and it added that Duvdevan special operations troops arrested a Hamas-affiliated wanted suspect in the Tulkarm area.
Gaza strikes and wider stakes
While the West Bank raids unfolded, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least four Palestinians and wounded at least 15 others across the territory, according to Palestinian health officials cited by the Inquirer.
“Amid escalating tensions in the West Bank, a Palestinian man snatched an Israeli settler's weapon in a new incident”
The Inquirer reported that in Khan Younis an airstrike killed a man and a woman whose bodies were taken to Nasser Hospital, and it said a strike on a motorbike in Gaza City’s Sheikh Radwan neighborhood killed the director of the area’s police force, according to the Interior Ministry and Shifa Hospital.
It also said Israeli drones struck the vicinity of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, wounding 10 people, and that the military said it struck a member of Hamas’ military wing near Al-Aqsa hospital.
The Inquirer added that Israel’s retaliatory offensive in Gaza has killed more than 73,317 Palestinians, including those killed since the ceasefire, Gaza’s Health Ministry said, and it reported that the ministry maintains detailed casualty records seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts.
In the West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners Club and other Palestinian accounts framed the arrests as part of collective punishment and retaliation, with CGTN reporting that the Palestinian Prisoners Club said those targeted included former prisoners and that most arrests were carried out after Palestinians confronted settler attacks.
