Dozens of Palestinians have been injured in a raid by Israeli troops into a town in the occupied West Bank, as the situation remains volatile in the wake of ramped-up military incursions by the regime.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced in a statement that its paramedics treated more than 60 people in the town of Beita following confrontations with the raiding Israeli forces on Saturday.
Two of the Palestinians had sustained bruises and one had got burns, while the rest suffered breathing difficulties as a result of inhaling excessive tear gas used by Israeli forces to suppress protesting crowd.
Residents told the official Palestinian news agency Wafa that Israeli forces raided Beita in the early hours of the day, broke into several houses and violently ransacked them before firing tear gas canisters indiscriminately in a number of neighborhoods.
Locals said more than 100 military vehicles rolled into the town, closing its entrances and preventing either entry into or exit from it.
Israeli forces launch raids on various cities of the West Bank almost on a daily basis under the pretext of detaining what the regime calls “wanted” Palestinians. The raids usually lead to violent confrontations with residents.
More than 200 Palestinians have been killed this year in the occupied Palestinian territories and Gaza. The majority of these fatalities have been recorded in the West Bank.
Those figures indicate that 2023 is already the deadliest year for Palestinians in the West Bank since the United Nations began keeping track of fatalities in 2005.
Previously, 2022 had been the deadliest year with 150 Palestinians killed, of whom 33 were minors, according to the United Nations.
