Israeli forces raid Palestinian town, surround mosque northwest of East Jerusalem

Israeli forces on Sunday raided the town of Biddu northwest of East Jerusalem and surrounded a mosque while worshippers were performing prayers following a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, the Jerusalem Governorate said. The governorate said in a statement that Israeli troops stormed the town and surrounded worshippers inside the Abdullah bin Jaber Mosque during the Asr prayer. The raid followed a shooting attack in which an Israeli occupier was killed. In an earlier statement, the governorate identified Qadri Samara, a former Palestinian prisoner from Biddu, as the suspected shooter in the attack near the illegal Neve Tzuf settlement, also known as Halamish, northwest of Ramallah. It said Israeli forces arrested Samara while he was wounded inside H Clinic Hospital in Ramallah after troops raided the medical facility in large numbers. ​​​​​​​Violence has surged in the West Bank amid escalating raids and attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers against Palestinians and their property since the Gaza war in October 2023.