SALFIT, Palestine

Israeli army forces raided a Palestinian school in the West Bank town of Hares early Monday and held students and teachers inside, according to witnesses.

The raid was part of an Israeli military operation in the town since Sunday where dozens of people were detained and several houses searched.

“Lessons were disrupted at the school after the Israeli raid,” a witness told Anadolu.

He said several teachers and students were held by Israeli soldiers inside the premises, without giving an exact figure.

Tension has been running high across the occupied West Bank amid a brutal Israeli offensive on the Gaza Strip, which has killed more than 41,400 people, mostly women and children, since Oct. 7 last year.

At least 716 Palestinians have since been killed, nearly 5,750 others injured and over 10,800 arrested in the occupied territory, according to Palestinian figures.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion last July by the International Court of Justice that declared Israel's decades-long occupation of Palestinian land unlawful and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio