Tel Aviv [Israel], December 27 : Israeli forces carried out mass arrests and forced dozens of families from their homes in the town of Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank, on the second day of a sweeping military operation ordered by Israel's defence minister, as per Al Jazeera.
Israeli forces sealed off entrances to Qabatiya while rounding up and interrogating dozens of residents on Saturday, local sources told Al Jazeera. They converted several homes into military interrogation centres, displacing their occupants, Al Jazeera reported, quoting its sources.
Israel's Army Radio reported that the town is subject to a "full curfew".
The crackdown follows an order by Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz to "act forcefully ... against the village of Qabatiya", where he claims a Palestinian alleged of carrying out a stabbing and car-ramming attack in northern Israel hails from, as per Al Jazeera.
In a statement on Friday, Israel's military said it had deployed troops from multiple divisions, along with border police and members of the Shin Bet security service, into Qabatiya. It said forces had raided the attack suspect's home and were preparing to demolish it.
Rights groups have long condemned Israel's practice of demolishing the family homes of Palestinians accused of attacks against Israelis, describing it as an illegal form of collective punishment, as per Al Jazeera.
Israel's military claimed its forces would "scan additional locations in the village" and "work to arrest wanted individuals and locate weapons".
"There is a sense of fear among people in town," one resident told Al Jazeera. "There are Israeli threats and Israeli incitement."
The Israel Defence Forces said in a post on X, "IDF soldiers have begun operating in the area of Qabatiya to thwart terrorism, and are currently conducting a precise operational search at the residence of the terrorist who carried out the terror attack earlier today."
https://x.com/IDF/status/2004569691168370695?s=20
Since October 7, 2023, Israeli authorities have arrested nearly 21,000 Palestinians. As of December 1, some 9,300 Palestinian prisoners were in Israeli jails, more than a third of them detained without charges, as per Al Jazeera.
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