Child, woman injured by Israeli fire during West Bank raids

By Awad Rajoob

RAMALLAH, Palestine (AA) - A Palestinian child and a woman were injured on Monday evening as Israeli forces raided two towns in the West Bank, one in the north and the other in the south.

Official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that a child was shot in the leg with live fire during an Israeli raid in the town of Beita, south of Nablus.

“Israeli forces stormed the town, firing live bullets and tear gas canisters, sparking confrontations. The child was transported to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus for treatment,” Mahmoud Barham, the town’s mayor, told the agency.

In Husan, a town west of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, a Palestinian woman in her thirties was also injured in the leg by Israeli gunfire during a raid.

Wafa reported that “the woman was injured when soldiers opened fire at a vehicle near a playground and school area. She was taken to a hospital in Bethlehem for medical care.”

Additionally, in Hebron’s Old City, activist Aref Jaber told Anadolu that Israeli soldiers assaulted a young man near the Ibrahimi Mosque after taking him to a nearby military base.

Israeli forces closed an earthen road used by residents of Dura, south of Hebron, after shutting the main entrance to the town, which connects it to nearby villages, witnesses reported.

“Israeli forces often block the main gate at the town’s entrance, forcing residents to use alternative dirt roads,” they said.

Several years of Israeli military raids on the West Bank escalated with the beginning of the war on Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023. Palestinians have also been violently attacked by illegal Israeli settlers.

At least 824 Palestinians have since been killed and over 6,500 others injured by Israeli army fire in the occupied territory, according to the Health Ministry.

The escalation follows a landmark opinion in July by the International Court of Justice that 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.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio