Attacks, raids and forced demolitions mark another day of Israeli violence in West Bank

Attacks, raids and forced demolitions mark another day of Israeli violence in West Bank

Israeli forces and settlers carried out 20 attacks on Palestinian olive pickers in six West Bank governorates on Friday, according to the Palestinian Wall and Colonization Resistance Commission.

The attacks included detentions, assaults, uprooting of trees and theft of crops, Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing the commission. Farmers were also blocked from their fields.

West of Jericho, Israeli settlers entered farmland in ad-Duyuk at-Tahta with their sheep. They destroyed crops and greenhouses, resident Mustafa Fheidat told Wafa.

He estimated the damage at hundreds of thousands of shekels.

East of Ramallah, Israeli forces raided the Abu Fazaa Bedouin community for more than three hours, smashing vehicles, assaulting residents and detaining one man.

In Hebron, Israeli forces closed several Old City neighbourhoods for Jewish holidays, including the Ibrahimi Mosque, which will stay closed to Muslims until Saturday night.

Forces also detained three Palestinians, including a journalist, in Hebron and Masafer Yatta, assaulting a fourth.

Among them was Mohammad Yousef Makhmareh, a man with a disability, who was detained in Khirbet al-Markaz after soldiers tried to take his sheep. He lost a hand years ago to a landmine left by Israeli forces.

In occupied East Jerusalem, two Palestinians were forced to demolish their own homes, which housed 18 people, in Jabal al-Mukabber.

The families had paid 25,000 shekels trying to prevent the demolitions.