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The Israeli army detained about 100 Palestinians in the town of Beit Ummar, north of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, after sealing all of the town’s entrances early Wednesday, Anadolu reports.
The operation came hours after an Israeli settler was killed and three others were wounded, one critically, in a ramming and stabbing attack at the Gush Etzion junction in the southern West Bank. The attack was carried out by two Palestinians, one of them from Beit Ummar, who were shot dead by Israeli forces.
On Tuesday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said the Palestinian Civil Affairs Authority — the official liaison with Israel — notified it that Imran al-Atrash from Hebron and Walid Mohammed Sabarneh from Beit Ummar were killed by Israeli fire near Bethlehem in the southern West Bank.
Israeli forces stormed Beit Ummar early Wednesday and raided dozens of homes, including the Sabarneh family’s house, damaging its contents, witnesses told Anadolu.
They said the army launched a broad arrest campaign in the town, detaining about 100 people.
READ: Israel plans to take 4,600 dunams in northern West Bank, citing archaeology protection
According to the witnesses, the army turned the municipal stadium into a makeshift holding and interrogation site.
Videos circulating online showed Israeli soldiers escorting bound Palestinians inside the town.
Residents said the army sealed all entrances to Beit Ummar with dirt mounds and iron gates, restricting movement in and out of the area.
The Israeli army has escalated its attacks in the West Bank since the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023.
More than 1,076 Palestinians have since been killed, and 10,700 others injured in attacks by the army and illegal settlers in the occupied territory. More than 20,500 people have also been arrested.
In a landmark opinion last July, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory illegal and called for the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
READ: Israeli security warns government weakened army against settlers as West Bank tensions rise
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This work by Middle East Monitor is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Thousands of Israelis have signed a petition urging Defence Minister Israel Katz to immediately close military detention centres where Palestinian detainees are reportedly being tortured, leading to the deaths of dozens.
According to Anadolu Agency on Tuesday, over 4,100 Israelis signed the petition, launched by the movement Zazim – Popular Campaign in cooperation with Israel’s General Committee Against Torture.
Zazim – Popular Campaign is Israel’s largest mass campaign movement, with more than 400,000 members. The petition stated that signatories include both Jewish and Arab Israelis.
One of the most notorious military detention centres is Sde Teiman in southern Israel. It has been used by the Israeli army to hold Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip since the start of the war on 8 October 2023.
The petition said: “Sde Teiman is not an exceptional case. The Israeli army acknowledges that dozens of Palestinian detainees have died in military detention centres.”
“These centres can be closed with a single administrative decision by the defence minister. There is no justification for their existence, and as Israeli citizens, we will not accept torture camps on our land.”
On Monday, the Israeli organisation Physicians for Human Rights reported that at least 98 Palestinians have died in Israeli detention centres and prisons over the past two years.
Of these, 52 died in military detention centres, including 29 at Sde Teiman alone.
The report noted that many of these deaths were caused by violence, mistreatment, and medical neglect.
READ: Israeli security warns government weakened army against settlers as West Bank tensions rise
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