Ramallah, July 30 -- Israeli occupation forces arrested 19 Palestinians on Wednesday during a large-scale raid across multiple areas of the West Bank, accompanied by widespread home demolitions and rising settler violence supported by the Israeli military.

In the town of Idhna, west of Hebron, Israeli forces also demolished a house and several commercial structures.

According to the Palestinian Prisoners Society, the raids, carried out amid heavy gunfire, targeted various parts of Hebron, Jericho, Qalqilya, and Nablus. The 19 detainees were reportedly arrested under claims of being "wanted" by Israeli authorities.

The municipal council of Idhna reported that Israeli bulldozers demolished a 150-square-meter house, five commercial stalls and barns, and several mobile homes. One resident was arrested after being physically assaulted.

In a related development, settlers began expanding an illegal outpost in the village of Shallal Al-Auja, north of Jericho. Hassan Mleihat, General Coordinator of Al-Baidar Organization for the Defense of Bedouin Rights, stated that settlers began pouring concrete to establish new housing units in the area, where the outpost has stood for several months.

He noted that the move reflects growing settler violations against Palestinian Bedouin communities, carried out with clear complicity from Israeli authorities in an effort to impose new realities on the ground and expand settlement control.

According to the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, settlers have established 23 new outposts in the first half of 2025, mostly livestock outposts, across the governorates of Ramallah, Nablus, Hebron, Qalqilya, Tubas, and Jerusalem, as part of a wider policy of land appropriation under military protection.

//Petra// AO

30/07/2025 15:11:09