The campaign comes after a settler was killed and three others were injured, one of them critically, in a car-ramming and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank, carried out by two Palestinians from the town who were immediately shot dead by the occupation forces.
In this context, the Palestinian Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday evening that the Civil Affairs had informed it of the martyrdom of Imran Al-Atrash from Hebron and Walid Sabarna from Beit Ummar after they were shot near Bethlehem.
Eyewitnesses reported that a large force of Israeli occupation soldiers stormed the town at dawn, raided dozens of homes, including that of the Sabarna family, and ransacked their contents before launching a widespread arrest campaign. They explained that the army converted the municipal stadium into a detention and field interrogation center, while videos showed soldiers leading away handcuffed Palestinians.
Witnesses indicated that the army also carried out a series of raids in other cities and towns in the West Bank during the past hours.
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These developments come at a time when the West Bank is witnessing an unprecedented escalation in attacks by settlers and the Israeli occupation army against Palestinians, resulting in the martyrdom of at least 1,076, the injury of about 10,700, and the arrest of more than 20,500, during the two years of the war of extermination in Gaza.
The Israeli offensive in Gaza began on October 7, 2013, and ended two years later with a ceasefire agreement, leaving more than 69,000 Palestinian martyrs and over 170,000 wounded, most of them children and women, with reconstruction costs estimated by the United Nations at around $70 billion.