RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA

The Israeli army rounded up at least 22 Palestinians and demolished four more Palestinian-owned homes in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday.

A journalist and four women were among the detainees in the raids that targeted several towns in the West Bank, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

During the Israeli raids, Israeli forces stormed several homes, vandalized their properties, and held people for field interrogation, the statement added.

Tuesday's arrests brought the number of Palestinians detained by the Israeli army in the West Bank since October 2023 to over 16,400, including those who were released after being arrested, according to Palestinian figures.

The figure does not include those arrested from the Gaza Strip, whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army demolished four Palestinian homes and agricultural and livestock structures in the central and southern West Bank, citing the lack of building permits, witnesses said.

According to witnesses, Israeli forces raided the village of Al-Zweidin, south of Hebron city, and razed two homes and five livestock barns and a water well.

Two more homes were demolished by Israeli forces in Qibya town, west of Ramallah city, they added.

Israel widely uses the pretext of a lack of construction permits to demolish Palestinian homes, especially in Area C in the occupied West Bank, which is under Israel’s administrative and security control, and constitutes around 60% of the West Bank.

Under the 1995 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, was divided into three portions – Area A, B, and C.

Nearly 960 Palestinians have been killed and over 7,000 others injured in attacks by the Israeli army and illegal settlers in the West Bank since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, according to Palestinian figures.

In July 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land illegal and demanded the evacuation of all existing settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.