Israeli Settlers And Forces Burn Homes And Cars In West Bank Raids, Al Jazeera Reports

Israeli settlers and forces carried out another wave of raids across the occupied West Bank, where houses and cars were set on fire and a Palestinian child was attacked, according to Al Jazeera’s account of the Palestinian Wafa news agency.

In Khirbet Shuweika, south of Hebron, Wafa reported that a man and his child were attacked with “sharp instruments” and were taken to hospital due to head injuries, while in al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus, settlers torched a home and Palestinian Civil Defence crews extinguished the blaze.

Al Jazeera

In Abu Falah, northeast of Ramallah, Wafa cited security sources saying settlers “stormed the outskirts of the village, burned a citizen’s vehicle, and wrote racist slogans on the walls of houses.”

The same reporting described Israeli forces forcing residents in the village of al-Asa’asa in Jenin to exhume a newly buried body and take it elsewhere, after claiming the first site was too close to an illegal Israeli settlement.

In the town of Tuqu, southeast of Bethlehem, mayor Taysir Abu Mufreh told Wafa that Israeli forces fired “tear gas and sound bombs” at worshippers leaving a local mosque and locked a number of them inside.

Alongside settler arson and attacks, the occupied West Bank saw Israeli military raids and arrests, with Middle East Monitor describing a wave of operations overnight on Friday based on Wafa reporting.

In Nablus, Israeli forces stormed the city and arrested three Palestinians, including two former prisoners, with WAFA saying the raids entered through the Huwara checkpoint to the south and Checkpoint 17 to the north and deployed around the Old City.

Al Jazeera

Middle East Monitor also described stun grenades being fired at Palestinians picnicking near Solomon’s Pools, south of Bethlehem, and said the Palestine Red Crescent Society treated two people for tear gas inhalation and evacuated five others from the scene.

Radio-Canada, citing Associated Press (AP) security camera footage, described an overnight assault in the Bedouin hamlet of Khirbet Al-Sidra, north of Jerusalem, where around 10 p.m. Saturday several village buildings caught fire as gunfire, screams, and barking dogs echoed.

Radio-Canada reported that the Jerusalem Governorate of the Palestinian Authority said eight homes and at least two cars were set on fire during the attack, while the Israeli army said soldiers deployed to the scene found an Israeli vehicle containing batons and that troops were sweeping the area to make arrests.

While the West Bank raids and settler attacks unfolded, Radio-Canada reported that at least four other countries announced they had been invited to join Donald Trump’s Gaza Peace Council, described as the international body tasked with overseeing his ceasefire plan for Gaza and perhaps other solutions to the conflict.

Radio-Canada said invitations to the Peace Council included Jordan, Greece, Cyprus and Pakistan, and that Albania, Egypt, Paraguay, Argentina and Turkey had already confirmed that they had been invited.

The same Radio-Canada report said an Israeli minister ordered the cut in water and electricity to UNRWA facilities, and that UNRWA fears the closure could hamper its work in East Jerusalem.

Radio-Canada attributed the action to Israel’s Energy Minister, Eli Cohen, saying he had issued official notices to cut water and electricity to UNRWA facilities, and it reported that UNRWA said on X that the cut could take effect within two weeks.

In the Gaza Peace Council context, Radio-Canada added that the United States had not yet announced its official list of members and that an American official said no financial contribution was required to join the Peace Council, while confirming that a contribution of one billion dollars would guarantee a permanent seat.