Israeli military forces have carried out a string of overnight incursions into several towns in the West Bank, arresting several Palestinians, including the sisters of top Hamas official Saleh al-Arouri killed in a drone strike on the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital Beirut.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA, citing local sources, said Israeli forces rolled into the towns of Mazra’a al-Gharbiya, Arura and Birzeit as well as Jalazone refugee camp, located 7 kilometers (4.3 miles) north of Ramallah, onboard several jeeps and armored vehicles early on Sunday.
They broke into several homes and residential buildings, and violently ransacked them. They took away a number of people to unknown locations.
Dalal and Fatima al-Arouri, the sisters of the assassinated deputy head of the political bureau of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement, were among those arrested during the Israeli raids.
Arouri was killed on January 2 in a “treacherous Zionist strike” on Beirut’s southern suburb of Dahiyeh, Hamas announced on its official channel.
Hamas politburo member Izzat al-Rishq called it a “cowardly assassination”.
Arouri was a senior official in Hamas’s politburo, and known to be deeply involved in its military affairs. He had previously headed the group’s presence in the occupied West Bank.
Elsewhere in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, confrontations erupted between local residents and Israeli occupation forces, when the latter stormed the area late on Saturday and started destroying the western entrance to the city using a bulldozer.
Palestinian security sources said Israeli soldiers raided multiple neighborhoods of the city, leading to bitter clashes in many locations, like the adjacent Jenin refugee camp and the vicinity of Jenin Governmental Hospital.
Palestinian medical sources said a Palestinian ambulance was stopped and searched thoroughly by Israeli forces during the skirmishes.
Israel has ramped up its aggression in the West Bank since its bombardment of Gaza began in early October.
At least 344 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 7 when Israel waged the genocidal war on Gaza after Hamas carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
The Israeli aggression has so far killed at least 23,843 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and wounded another 60,317 individuals.
The Tel Aviv regime has imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
