Israeli Raids Injure Palestinian, Arrest Two in Hizma and Hebron West Bank

Israeli raids across several areas of the occupied West Bank injured a Palestinian and led to the arrest of two others on Saturday, as the Israeli army carried out operations accompanied by occupiers’ attacks and the closure of roads and town entrances.

“Toggle Play Videos show Israeli settlers trying to seize house in occupied West Bank Videos show Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, trying to seize a house under construction on the outskirts of the town of Qabalan, just south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank”

Al Jazeera

The Jerusalem Governorate said a young Palestinian suffered facial injuries, while several others including children and elderly people were overcome by tear gas after Israeli forces stormed a wedding celebration in Hizma, northeast of Jerusalem, and fired a tear gas canister directly at attendees.

Al Jazeera

In the southern West Bank governorate of Hebron, WAFA reported that Israeli forces arrested a Palestinian while he was grazing livestock in the village of Al-Deirat, east of Yatta, and another Palestinian was arrested while Israeli troops chased shepherds in the Wadi Rahila area near the village of Al-Rakeez in Masafer Yatta.

The occupied West Bank has also seen a sharp increase in attacks by Israeli occupiers and military forces targeting Palestinian farmland, including arson, land bulldozing and preventing farmers from accessing their land, particularly in areas near illegal settlements and settlement outposts.

According to official Palestinian figures cited in the report, Israeli military operations and occupiers’ attacks in the occupied West Bank since Oct. 8, 2023, have killed 1,173 Palestinians, injured 12,666 others, led to the arrest of about 23,000 people and displaced about 33,000 residents.

In Hebron, Haaretz reported that Israeli troops and settlers entered the al-Ras Mosque in the old West Bank city of Hebron on Friday and expelled it, while Palestinian officials said Hebrew music was played in the courtyard.

Haaretz also said Waqf officials reported that the muezzin call at the Cave of the Patriarchs was blocked for five days over 'maintenance', and that mosque director Mu'taz Abu Sanina was removed for 12 days, the third such removal.

Anadolu Ajansi

In Ramallah, Saba said extremist settlers released their sheep on Palestinian farmland in the village of Al-Mughayyir, east of Ramallah, destroying dozens of grapevines after cutting through a metal fence surrounding a plot of land.

Saba reported that the Al-Mughayyir Association said the attack resulted in the grazing and destruction of approximately 270 five-year-old grapevines, “under the protection of an armed group of settlers and in the presence of Israeli occupation army patrols.”

The Guardian later described a broader pattern of pressure and detention around the West Bank, saying Sarah Mullally and Hosam Naoum issued a joint letter urging Anglicans to press politicians “to take all necessary measures to establish a credible path towards ending the occupation”.

Across the occupied West Bank, NPR described Palestinians grieving after Nayef Samaro was shot dead by an Israeli soldier during an Israeli military raid on May 3 on a busy shopping thoroughfare in Nablus, as his wife Shami was about to give birth.

“West Bank: nighttime attacks and villages set ablaze, Israeli settlers implicated Dozens or even hundreds of Israeli settlers, according to various sources, attacked overnight from Saturday to Sunday villages in the occupied West Bank, notably Fandaqumiya and Jaloud, setting buildings and property on fire”

France 24

NPR reported that Samaro, 25, was killed as he was on his way to meet his wife at the hospital, and that Shami said, “Everyone knows we are living under occupation,” adding, “My son is going to grow up without a father.”

Ajith Sunghay, head of the U.N. Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told NPR, “There is no accountability for violence by Israeli settlers or by the Israeli military.”

In a separate account of settler violence, Le Devoir reported that AFP journalists saw charred remains of a house and vehicles in the village of Fandaqumiya southwest of Jenin, and that Hassan Al-Zoubi said about “two hundred attackers” came from the neighboring settlement of Homesh.

Le Devoir also said Israeli officials including the army's Chief of General Staff Eyal Zamir publicly expressed concern about a rise in violence by settlers in the West Bank, while AFP reported that since March 2, six Palestinians have been killed by fire from settlers in the West Bank.