Israeli military raids injure 2 Palestinian children in West Bank

Two Palestinian children were injured and Palestinian property came under attack Tuesday during Israeli military raids and occupier assaults across several areas of the occupied West Bank on the eve of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said its teams transported a 13-year-old boy to the hospital after he was struck by rubber-coated bullets during an Israeli army raid on the town of Bani Naim east of Hebron.

In Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron, anti-settlement activist Osama Makhamra said Israeli occupiers damaged fencing and cut down trees in Khirbet Umm al-Kheir.

Makhamra told journalists that occupiers also assaulted Palestinians in the area while Israeli forces intervened by firing stun grenades.

He added that 16-year-old Mohammed Aziz Al-Hathalin suffered bruises and injuries during the assault.

In a separate incident in Masafer Yatta, occupiers cut an electricity cable supplying a Palestinian home powered by solar panels, according to Makhamra.

Further north, Nasser Eshteyeh, media spokesman for the Salem village council east of Nablus, said occupiers entered village lands and attempted to set fire to agricultural crops during the peak harvest season.

Residents managed to extinguish the fire before it spread, he added.

According to the Palestinian Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, occupiers carried out 540 attacks against Palestinians and their property across the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in April alone.

The assaults came as the Israeli military continued escalating attacks in the West Bank, including killings, arrests and raids on cities and towns involving home searches and destruction of property since the start of Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip in October 2023.

Attacks by the Israeli army and occupiers in the West Bank have since killed 1,163 Palestinians, injured 12,245 and led to nearly 23,000 arrests, according to official figures.

*Writing by Tarek Chouiref