ISRAELI soldiers intensified their offensive in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem yesterday, raiding at least 20 towns and villages as well as a United Nations facility.
They demolished homes and arrested dozens of Palestinians, as Arab states condemned escalating settler attacks against Palestinians and their property.
Soldiers fired tear gas and detained staff at a vocational training centre run by the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) in the Qalandia refugee camp, near occupied East Jerusalem.
The Jerusalem Governorate said in a statement that after storming the centre, the soldiers held teaching and administrative staff in one of the halls, then climbed onto the roof of the camp’s local committee building.
The Israeli army had swept into Qalandia overnight, deploying across several neighbourhoods and firing tear gas and stun grenades, which sparked a fire.
They entered without notifying the agency, where 45 staff and around 80 students were present for summer training. The raid came about six weeks after the governorate warned of an Israeli plan to demolish the Qalandia training centre.
Israel has already banned UNRWA from operating in occupied East Jerusalem and demolished agency buildings there.
Israeli forces also stormed the Jabal Salman area in the town of Beita, south of Nablus yesterday, and carried out demolition operations in the town of Nilin, west of Ramallah.
In a separate incursion, forces stormed the town of Arrabeh in Jenin, accompanied by military bulldozers.
Raids and arrests were also reported in Deir al-Ghusun, north of Tulkarem, where five Palestinians were detained.
Four young men were arrested during raids on the Balata camp and Asira al-Shamaliya in Nablus, Quds News reported.
Soldiers raided homes and made arrests in several other villages and towns, including Deir Jarir, Jalbon, Kafr Qaddum, Tal, Burqa, Beit Furik, Anabta, the Aktaba suburb, Qalqilya, Arroub camp and Beit Ummar.
Mustafa Barghouti, from the Palestinian National Initiative, told the BBC yesterday: ‘There are about 25 settler attacks on different communities every day, burning houses, burning cars, shooting people, uprooting trees, confiscating land.
‘It’s a combination of theft and terror, to grab the Palestinian land and to try to force the Palestinians out of their country.
‘The Minister of Defence in Israel, Katz himself, spoke bluntly about displacing Palestinians.
‘What we face here are not only illegal settlers who are behaving as terrorists, but they are supported by the Israeli army which is equipping them with arms and the army itself participates with them in attacks on Palestinians.
‘What we are talking about here is 500 illegal settlements with 850,000 terrorist settlers who are threatening the lives of every man, woman and child in the West Bank.’
