RAMALLAH, Palestine 

Israeli forces accompanied by illegal settlers raided several Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank late Monday, triggering clashes that led to injuries, gas-induced suffocation and arrests, according to the Palestinian news agency WAFA.

In the northern West Bank villages of Madama and Burin south of Nablus, Palestinians reportedly suffered suffocation from tear gas after Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters along with live rounds and sound bombs, WAFA reported.

In another incident near the village of Deir Istiya north of Salfit, illegal settlers assaulted a Palestinian while he was harvesting olives and attempted to abduct him.

Illegal settlers also reportedly discharged wastewater onto Palestinian olive groves containing around 60 trees.

Further south in Hebron, illegal settlers entered the ancient archaeological site of Tell Ma’in near the town of al-Karmil, performing religious rituals and photographing Roman ruins, including olive presses and a palace, the report said.

Also in the Hebron region, witnesses told Anadolu that an illegal armed settler entered the village of Umm al-Khair in Masafer Yatta, causing panic among residents, particularly children.

Israeli forces arrested a 62-year-old Palestinian man in the town of Al Khader south of Bethlehem.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank due to Israel’s brutal offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 43,000 people, mostly women and children, following a cross-border incursion by the Palestinian group Hamas last October.

At least 763 Palestinians have since been killed and around 6,300 injured by Israeli army fire in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The current escalation follows a July opinion by the International Court of Justice which declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian territories “illegal” and called for the evacuation of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.