West Bank16 August, 20262 min read
Israeli Forces Storm Wedding Hall in Al-Eizariya, Assault Palestinian Attendees
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Israeli forces stormed al-Eizariya wedding hall, assaulting Palestinian attendees. Video shows raid continuing as music played inside the hall.
9 outlets told this the same way.
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Wedding raid in al-Eizariya
Israeli forces stormed a wedding hall in al-Eizariya town in the occupied West Bank and assaulted Palestinian attendees, according to Palestinian news agency WAFA. Al Jazeera said video shows the raid unfolding as music continues to play inside the hall.
PressTV reported that Israeli troops separately raided a wedding hall at al-Eizariya town and assaulted Palestinians inside the venue. PressTV also tied the incidents to a days-long Israeli settler siege of Palestinian homes in the occupied West Bank village of Qusra, where Palestinian, foreign, and Israeli activists reached three besieged homes in the Ras al-Ain area after five days but were barred by the Israeli military as the area was classified as a “closed military zone.”
Ben-Gvir, arrests, and siege
PressTV said that on Friday, Israel’s so-called security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir published a post on X after Israeli forces arrested the bride and groom for allegedly causing “traffic jams” during their wedding celebrations in the Negev region of the 1948-occupied Palestinian territories. PressTV added that the newlyweds were taken by Israeli police for interrogation while still wearing their wedding clothes.
In the same account, PressTV described how since Sunday Israeli settlers surrounded three families by blocking the roads that lead to their residences, restricting their ability to enter or exit. PressTV reported that the Israeli military deployed hundreds of soldiers to Qusra under the pretext of dismantling a settlement outpost established by settlers near the town, while Palestinian authorities cautioned the siege may serve as a mechanism to displace inhabitants and seize their properties.
Umm al-Fahm and wider escalation
Al-Jazirah Net described widely shared video clips showing the detainment of a Palestinian couple in wedding dresses and the storming of another wedding, saying Israeli police mistreated celebrants.
Al-Jazirah Net quoted Arab Knesset member Ahmad Tibi saying, “Ben-Gvir’s police raided a wedding in Umm al-Fahm tonight as if it were a crime scene: they destroyed, insulted, threw stun grenades, forced the attendees to lie on the ground, and humiliated an entire normal family under the pretext of searching for weapons.”
Anadolu Ajansı reported that forces from the Israeli police stormed a Palestinian wedding in the city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, firing sound grenades and terrifying those present on the grounds of suspected weapon use.
Anadolu Ajansı also said Yedioth Ahronot wrote that police officers threw sound grenades, ordered attendees to lie down, and conducted searches, but left the scene without arrests, while quoting groom’s father Mustafa al-Afoun: “We were celebrating our son’s joy, and everyone was happy, dancing and singing. Suddenly the police burst in, threw sound grenades.”