RAMALLAH, Palestine / ANKARA

The Israeli army detained three Palestinians, including a husband and his wife, and demolished five homes in the occupied West Bank on Monday, witnesses said.

The three were taken into custody at an Israeli military checkpoint at an entry point to Nabi Salih town, west of Ramallah city in the central West Bank, they said.

The three Palestinians were handcuffed and transported in a military vehicle to an unknown location, the witnesses said.

No reason was provided by the Israeli army for the arrests.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army demolished five more Palestinian homes in the southern West Bank, citing the lack of a construction permit.

According to witnesses, Israeli forces, escorted with bulldozers, raided the town of Idhna, west of Hebron city, and brought down the five buildings.

Two of the demolished homes were inhabited by nearly 30 people, while the three others were under construction, they said.

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.