Jerusalem: Israeli forces arrested 80 people across the occupied West Bank over the past week, the military said on Friday, as tensions continue to rise in the territory amid Israel’s ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the operations also led to the seizure of seven weapons and more than 7 million shekels (around 2 million U.S. dollars), which it described as “funds intended for terrorist activities.”
Separately, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz visited the site of Sa-Nur, a former Israeli settlement in the northern West Bank slated for reconstruction, according to a statement from his office.
Sa-Nur is among 22 settlements approved by Israel’s Security Cabinet in what government ministers have described as the largest expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank in decades. Many of the sites already exist as unauthorised outposts and will now be granted legal status under Israeli law, while others are new, Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said.
Sa-Nur and another site, Homesh, were evacuated in 2005 as part of Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. Their planned reconstruction has drawn criticism internationally and from Palestinians, who seek the West Bank as part of a future state.
Settlements in the West Bank are widely considered illegal under international law and remain one of the most divisive issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Tensions have surged in the West Bank since the outbreak of the conflict in Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. The Israeli military has intensified its operations in northern areas of the West Bank, amid a rise in settler violence and near-daily clashes with Palestinian groups.
According to international humanitarian organizations, nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the start of the Gaza war.
Israel captured East Jerusalem, along with the rest of the West Bank, in the 1967 Six-Day War. Under international law, East Jerusalem is considered occupied Palestinian territory, and its annexation by Israel is deemed illegal.
